Life in the Wild is a refreshing little book from new author Dan DeWitt, Associate Professor of Apologetics & Applied Theology at Cedarville University, Ohio & Director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics & Public Christianity – but please don’t let that long title put you off! The bottom line is that DeWitt is a shrewd observer of life, a riveting Bible teacher, and a really good writer; he is both funny and creative, and in LITW he has crafted a compelling companion for living as Christians in this broken world.
That’s what the title is getting at: ‘the wild’ is his way of describing the realities of life here-and-now, full of the joys and sorrows of a good world marred with suffering and sin. DeWitt seeks to make sense of why the world is the way it is, and shows just how important it is that we go through life with our eyes open.
And yet DeWitt also manages to steer clear of cliche and well-worn descriptions; the book is littered with delightful illustration and a turn of phrase that really captures and brings home biblical truth. There’s similarities in style and aim to C.S. Lewis, N.D.Wilson and Andrew Wilson, but to be honest, there’s not many books quite like this.
All this means I was really glad when Dan DeWitt agreed to let me ask him some questions about his vision for the book and for why he’s written it…
Q. Dan, in Life in the Wild you speak of the need for Christians to look at this world with both realism and hope. Can you give us a snapshot of what led you to write this book?
A. I gave a talk to a group of college students, mostly from a local secular university, several years ago in which I was asked to speak on the problem of evil. I really didn’t want to do a philosophical discussion of the issue, though there are some really powerful philosophical arguments in favor of the Christian worldview. Rather, I wanted to simply read the first few chapters of Genesis and ask the question, “If this account is true (as a Christian I of course believe it is) then what should we expect the world to look like?” I outline seven effects of the fall that I think flow naturally from the text. Over the years I’ve returned to those seven effects of the fall from Genesis 3 many times in helping Christians think through pain and suffering and evil in the world.
Q. Sam Allberry described the book warmly as a “fresh and urgent field guide to life in the real world”. Is that what you were hoping for as you wrote it?
A. Absolutely. I hope that it is a helpful to resource to use the Bible as a way to understand our suffering in a fallen world. We need to inform both our grief and our hope by what the Bible has to say about life in the wild.
Q. The early chapters of Genesis are perhaps sometimes known simply as being a source of controversy amongst Christians. So to some it might seem odd to spend a whole book camped out in one of those chapters, Genesis 3. Why did you choose to do that?
A. I wanted to focus on the big picture of Genesis and not some of the controversies about issues related to the age of the earth or something like that. I think the primary purpose of every creation passage in the Bible is to demonstrate authorship and ownership. God is the creator, owner, and sustainer of all. Our rejection of his authorship and ownership is the reason that we are living in a fallen world. Understanding the effects of our rebellion, our sin, is what my book is about.
Q. In what ways do you think the church has misrepresented the challenge of living in a fallen world?
A. I think we see a religious misrepresentation of living in a fallen world anytime tele-evangelists talk as though faithful Christians won’t face suffering, illness, or financial distress. You have to wonder if the kind of people who say such things have ever read the Bible. The Bible is a book of suffering, from Gen. 3 to the end of Revelation. But I also think well-meaning, Bible-believing, church-attending, Christians can sometimes misrepresent this unintentionally by a lack of transparency in community. When people think we never have a bad day, are never tempted, are never depressed, are never fearful, et cetera, then we can give a rather skewed picture of the Christian life. Obviously we don’t want to air all of our dirty laundry every chance we can get, but there needs to be a way in which those around us see us wrestling to live out our hope in Jesus even when things go badly.
Q. How might the message of Life in the Wild help us as we think evangelistically about engaging our neighbors and the culture around us with the gospel?
A. For starters I think it should make us a whole lot more empathetic. We are all broken people living in a broken world. Secondly, I hope it serves as an encouragement to look for ways to help one another. In our service we may win the opportunity to point others to the source of hope we have found in the wild. Lastly, I hope that understanding the robust explanation of evil and suffering from Genesis can provide a biblical apologetic in conversations where people are trying to figure out why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.
Q. You’re involved in training people for Christian ministry. Why do you think it’s important for pastors to help Christians have an understanding of ‘the wild’ and where we are in God’s story? Any wisdom for those in pastoral ministry on helping people in this area?
A. I think we need to remind ourselves of the big story of the Bible often. When we look at the the big picture that God has a design for our world, we’ve fallen from this design, flourishing is found in pursuing this design, and one day God will return to restore his design. We see the opening and closing acts of human history in the Bible with creation and then the Lord’s return. We are living between divine acts, waiting in the wild for God’s design to be restored. That means the needs for Christian ministry are massive. We are broken people living in a broken world. But the resources for the believer are greater still, God provides grace to meet our needs as we wait for him to make all things new. It doesn’t make things easy, we still grieve, but we grieve with hope.
You can pick up a copy of Life in the Wild from the publisher here.
Full disclosure: The publisher sent me a free copy of this book, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.
As well as thinking about the opportunities and possibilities, most of us will probably be aware of situations we’re not looking forward to: relationships we keep at a distance, decisions we’d rather not make, areas of our lives we’d rather avoid. Dave Griffith-Jones is a church leader in East Hull and the author of the recently-published, Escaping Escapism, which is a refreshing call to face up to things we’re avoiding with our trust in God. He kindly let me ask him a few questions about how we might all escape ‘escapism’ this year – and I found his answers really stirring.
Dave, in Escaping Escapism you very much share your own journey as an ‘escapist’. Give us a snapshot of what led you to write this book?
It’s my specialist subject! A few years ago God began to show me that avoiding hard things was one of my besetting sins. As a sports fan, I’m addicted to live text commentaries (the longer the cricket match the better). As a dad, I scroll on my phone when I should be engaging with the kids. As a pastor, I dodge awkward-but-necessary conversations. As a leader, I put off decisions and don’t take risks. As a grown man I avoided the dentist for 19 years… I’ve been doing what is easiest for me, not what is best for others, when Jesus calls me to be strong and courageous.
That’s quite refreshing to hear. If I’m honest, my tendency would have been to think of escapists as being those who spend every waking-hour playing Candy Crush or burying ourselves in some fictional world through books or Netflix. And whilst that may be the case for some of us, I sense you’re saying it’s a wider problem?
I define escapism as avoiding difficult people, putting off difficult challenges and giving up in difficult times. It’s not doing any good thing Jesus calls us to do, whether that’s challenging injustice, committing to a relationship, speaking out your feelings, praying out loud, saying sorry, taking on new responsibility or planting a church… It’s driven by fear. Fear is the root of all escapism. Fear divides our hearts so that we trust God a bit, but not fully. So we need to pray that God would give us an undivided heart that fears him alone (Psalm 86:10, kind of the theme verse for the book).
Ok, so when you put it like that it’s really compelling – and yet part of me responds by deciding it’s just too uncomfortable to think about! What would your response be to someone who feels that sense of unease at doing what’s difficult?
The best things we do are usually the hardest. Climbing mountains, learning a language or an instrument, starting a business, telling people about Jesus, staying married, being a parent – the most daunting challenges are the most rewarding. Mark Twain was right: in future years we will be more disappointed by the things we did not do than by the things we do. If we avoid hard things, then we miss out on the joy of standing on top of a mountain that looked so formidable from below.
Christians throughout history have traditionally talked about sin in two categories: sins of commission (wrong things we do) and sins of omission (good things we fail to do). In the book you pick up on this latter category and link it to our escapist tendencies, making the suggestion that this is something of a blind-spot in twenty-first century Christianity. Tell us more….
It’s been a blind spot for me. When I did fight my sin, it’s mostly been my sins of commission: getting drunk, insulting people, lying, arguments, etc. The only sins of omission I noticed and confessed were pietistic: not praying, not reading my Bible. But Jesus says the most important commands are to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour as ourselves – so the most serious sins are sins of omission: failure to love God and love others. If we don’t fight sins of omission then spouses don’t get loved, friendships don’t get made, justice doesn’t get done, children don’t get parented, churches don’t get planted and Jesus doesn’t get honoured.
Lastly, as well as wrestling with your own escapism, as a pastor you’ll have obviously had to help other people engage with their own escapism too. Any wisdom for those in pastoral ministry on helping people deal with this?
Three tips: first, encourage people who struggle with escapism to set godly goals – to identify a mountain God wants them to climb (e.g. applying for a new job, helping a neighbour, speaking honestly, inviting a friend to church…). Second, help them identify the fears that hold them back from doing this – is it a fear of missing out, or of what people think, or of not being able to cope, or of failure, or of something else? Third, show them Jesus in a way that frees them from those fears. As Glen Scrivener puts it: “Fear is when life overwhelms you; faith is when Christ overwhelms you”. Jesus is not just a past and future rescuer – he is my refuge, my light, my shepherd here and now. So help people to see and savour Him here and now!
Dave, thank you so much for your time – that’s really inspiring stuff – here’s to embracing hard things with Jesus freeing us from our fears this year…
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If you want to quit avoiding and escaping situations, and instead embrace hard things this year, you can pick up a copy of Escaping Escapism from the publisher here.
One of the children’s songs I remember best from growing up has the line, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”. But sometimes the stark reality of life going on around us can make us question whether that’s really true. Whether it’s some disaster or crisis happening in the world ‘out there’, or a personal tragedy closer to home, we can begin to question whether God is really good – or whether he’s actually in control.
And so I think it’s great that pastor & writer Christopher Ash has written a new book, Where Was God When That Happened?, engaging with some of these issues. It comes in The Good Book Company’s bitesize Questions Christians Ask series, and Christopher kindly took the time to answer a few questions about relating to God – and to each other – when events make us question God’s grip on the world.
First-off, for those who don’t know you Christopher, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
God kindly enabled me to hear and respond to the gospel as a teenager, while in the sixth form at school. I was shaped by excellent nurture in Christian summer camps (what is now Titus Trust) and then learned practical ministry as a teacher in two secondary schools before training to be a pastor. I am married to Carolyn and we have been entrusted with three sons and a daughter, all now grown up, and three grandchildren. After serving as an Assistant Minister in Cambridge and leading a small church plant, I was responsible for the Proclamation Trust’s Cornhill Training Course in London from 2004-2015. Carolyn and I are now back in Cambridge, where I am self-employed as “Writer in Residence” at Tyndale House and “Ministry Trainer” at St.Andrew the Great church. I enjoy playing tennis and don’t so much enjoy supporting Swansea City F.C. (this season so far!).
The book is about a subject that could be very personal, as well as one that’s inevitably theological too. What led you to write this book?
It is not that I have experienced any great suffering, but rather that, in Christian pastoral work, you are so often alongside brothers and sisters who are going through tough times. I have had some myself, though pretty mild by comparison to others. Studying, preaching, and writing about the book of Job (Job: the Wisdom of the Cross and Out of the Storm) have helped me grapple with these deep questions both theologically and experientially.
In your experience, what stops us as Christians from believing God is really in control?
Well, we believe it in theory. We tick the “I believe God is in control” box. But when we are blind-sided by some shock, we forget what we believe. The suffering, disappointment, trauma, or distress numb our feelings and confuse our thoughts, so that our emotions are in such turmoil that what we know gets archived into some backwater of our consciousness. At least, that is what I find. It is pathetic really, but I may not be alone.
How can we learn to trust God more in the midst of situations that seem awful and contrary to life as it was created to be?
I think we need one another in this, as in so much of the Christian life. Although I ought to preach the truth to myself, I find I need brothers and sisters gently to tell me, remind me of what I already know in theory. And I should learn to do this with others. We need a brother or sister to come alongside us, pray for us, listen to us, be patient with us and gently turn our gaze from the destructive inwardness of self-pity into the faith-building focus on the promises of God.
What would you say to someone who feels like they can’t begin to grasp how God being in control of a horrific situation could ever come out well for God, or be something to celebrate?
I might not say anything much to start with, but I hope I would listen and pray. But what I want to say is this: don’t worry about grasping it, let alone celebrating it; it’s true whether or not you grasp it. Your security in the love of God does not depend on your grasping it; God the Father loves you with an unchanging love in Christ (and your or my erratic or even desperate feelings cannot change that). The time will come – most likely at the end of time – when we will freely and gladly celebrate; but let’s not worry too much about that now. Otherwise feeling we ought to understand and celebrate becomes just another burden to bear.
What advice would you give to those seeking to be faithful friends to those who are facing tragedy?
Be patient, be practical, be kind. Don’t pretend you understand their suffering, let alone why God has done it. Reassure them of the goodness and love of God in the Lord Jesus. Point them to the Cross. Above all, love them and let them know that you love them.
Lastly, did anything surprise you about writing this book?
I think the need for patience. Maybe I expected the bible answers, and in a way I think I have found and summarized them. But the whole thing of time – God’s instrument to work patient perseverance in us. In a hurried culture, I think that surprised me and corrected my hurry.
Thanks for asking me. I hope my reflections will prove helpful to someone.
Christopher, thank you very much for your time – both in sharing your reflections here, and in writing this book.
You can pick up a copy of Where Was God When That Happened? from the publisher here. At £3.31, it’s a bargain – and you can pick up ten for less than £3 each.
Hello, my name is Robin. Welcome to That Happy Certainty, where I write and collate on Christianity, culture, and church-planting. I’m based in Barrow in South Cumbria, England, where my family & I are part of Grace Church Barrow.
Life in the Wild is a refreshing little book from new author Dan DeWitt, Associate Professor of Apologetics & Applied Theology at Cedarville University, Ohio & Director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics & Public Christianity – but please don’t let that long title put you off! The bottom line is that DeWitt is a shrewd observer of life, a riveting Bible teacher, and a really good writer; he is both funny and creative, and in LITW he has crafted a compelling companion for living as Christians in this broken world.
