Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky…

Most of you are familiar with this line by now. It’s the opening line of a New Years poem written by the English poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) in 1850, but in light of its content could have been written yesterday for the way in which it spoke out against party strife, mean-spiritedness, lack of manners, and the absence of kindness. We looked into it during the last 24 hours of 2023 and in our New Years Eve service on Facebook Live. (If you missed it, you can check out the video at http://www.facebook.com/thecatch.) Not to belabor the point, but there is one last thing I wish to point out about this timely turn-of-the-year poem, and that would be Lord Tennyson’s use of the word “wild” in this opening line.

Why the “wild bells,” and the “wild sky?”

We asked that question in the first post on December 30, and in this Catch I would like to pose my own answer to the question.

Other than the poetic feeling implied by the use of the word — one of excitement, adventure and abandonment — is there more significance to Tennyson’s choice of this word “wild?” I believe there is, at least from our perspective, and I would call it embracing a spirit of uncertainty.

Now certainty is good and necessary to a point. As believers, the promises of God as laid out in the scripture provide spiritual certainty needed for our faith to survive. Paul says that faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Substance” and “evidence” are words of certainty. But, on the other hand, demanding too much certainty can be a problem.

Many of us, myself included, try to live a life filled with certainty, but that forces us to have to stay the same — an impossible expectation to fulfill. So the tendency is to artificially control our environment by changing our expectations thus giving ourselves the false assurance that our actions will either avoid pain or gain  pleasure. This may fulfill the basic human need for certainty, but it is the wrong kind of certainty for a believer, because it is based on control and manipulation, not on trust in the Lord.

In this day and age of conservative Christianity in a culture of chaos and confusion, the tendency is to lean towards more certainty, not more variety. We value safety over anything else. But soon we become complacent, seeking a life of comfort over one of discovery and adventure, and in so doing, we miss the vibrant life God has for us. “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,’ (1 Corinthians 2:9)” In other words, what God has in mind for us is way beyond anything we could ever come up with ourselves.

Think of the men and women of faith in the Old Testament like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, Abagail, and Ruth to name just a few. Though their ultimate destiny in life was certain, their day-to-day experience was anything but. The Holy Spirit does not create boring lives. Follow the stories of the Old and New Testaments and you will discover a Holy Spirit on the wild side. A life of faith is a life of adventure, not predictability.

Anything “wild” is unpredictable, untamed, uncultured, uncontrolled, and can even be dangerous. So rather than grapple with uncertainty, we would do better to embrace it as something sent by God as an opportunity for putting faith into action and thus deepening our experience. A good perspective as we face a new year.

So what would it mean to “walk on the wild side?” It would mean stepping into the unknown, accepting new challenges, getting out of our comfort zones, venturing into relationships across cultural or generational barriers to name just a few. If the Lord is in your life and you are listening to Him, I guarantee there is something challenging He is already asking you to do right now. I have a number of things He is asking me to take on outside my comfort zone. The Holy Spirit will never settle for complacency.

So, let’s go for it! Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky…