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When I was invited to review Mark Batterson’s new book “Wild Goose Chase,” I was pretty excited.  Based on the cover picture, it looked like it would be a story of adventure.  Like maybe a hunter is hunting the big wild goose or something.  It seemed intriguing, and I was pretty excited when it came in the mail.

I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover (art), because when I looked closer, I saw that it was really about reclaiming the adventure of pursuing God.  Well, that’s not a hunting story, but there’s nothing wrong with reading a book about pursuing God.  So I sat down to read.

As I began reading this book, I was thoroughly confused about how pursuing God had anything to do with chasing wild geese.  Then I saw the introduction, which included this quote:

The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit that has always intrigued me. They called Him An Geadh-Glas, or “the Wild Goose”. I love the imagery and implications. The name hints at the mysterious nature of the Holy Spirit. Much like a gild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger and an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious at first earshot, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to pursue the Spirit’s leading through life than Wild Goose chase.

Ahhh…I see it now.  Clever title.

I read the first chapter and was really looking forward to reading the rest of the book.  The book only has 7 chapters, and I figured it wouldn’t take me long to finish it.

That first chapter is mostly introduction.  Batterson speaks of reasons Christians don’t “chase the Wild Goose” in their lives (”cages”), and then each of the following six chapters deals with one of those “cages.”  They are:

• The Cage of Responsibility
• The Cage of Routine
• The Cage of Assumptions
• The Cage of Guilt
• The Cage of Failure
• The Cage of Fear

The first few chapters really made me think.  Specifically, when he talked about the cages of responsibility and routine, I was really challenged to stop and think about things.  I won’t dive deep into the personal stuff here, but I really enjoyed those first couple of chapters.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn’t impress me much.  Batterson must have used some variation of the phrase “chase the Wild Goose” a hundred times in those seven chapters, and it got to the point where it came across as trite, almost forced.  By the time I was nearing the end of the book, I almost cringed every time he used that phrase.

Though I enjoyed the first few chapters, it did seemed to me that throughout the book Batterson was throwing out some theory and then rummaging through Scripture to find something to back him up.  I expected more meaty content from a book by a pastor.

It’s certainly not the best book you’ll ever read, but if you’ve got the opportunity to check it out, you might find something in one of the chapters that really makes you think about your own life.