Discover how to live with hope in a fallen, messed-up, “wild” world, and be encouraged
We see Jesus, we believe in Jesus and we wait for Jesus, yet still we suffer. This book offers real and rugged answers in life’s dark places. Discover how to live with hope in a fallen, messed- up, "wild" world, and be encouraged.
Walking through Genesis 3, Dan DeWitt shows us how we can look at this world realistically but without despairing, as we wait for God to keep his promise to bring us out of the wild and into his new creation. It’s the contrast between Eden, where everything reflects God’s perfection, and exile, where everything is spoiled by sin. The book helps us survive living in exile - Life in the Wild - until “the glorious day when God will welcome us home, out of the wild”.
This book holds dark and light in balance. It shows how we are living with the effects of the fall (we are messed-up people living in a messed-up place) - but God’s promise, made in Eden, serves as a beacon of light to guide our steps in this fallen world.
Foreword (Mike Cosper)
Introduction: The Human Tragedy
1: Into The Wild
2: Where Are You?
3: Dazed & Confused
4: The War of the Worlds
5: It’s Not Easy Being Green
6: The Devil to Pay
7: God’s Final Enemy
Conclusion: The Divine Comedy
Afterword: Poem “Death’s Obituary”
| Contributors | Dan DeWitt |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781784981709 |
| Format | eBook |
| First published | February 2018 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
Living in our broken world, full of pain and disappointment and sin, is difficult for all of us. In Life in the Wild, Dan DeWitt reminds us that the mess we live in is, like us, awaiting a future redemption. Read along as Dan teaches us to navigate these challenges and anticipate the arrival of our perfect hope, Jesus, who will make an end of death and make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
This is a fresh and urgent field guide to life in the real world — the world of brokenness, tragedy and disappointment. Dan DeWitt gives us not only clarity and realism, but also wonderful hope as he consistently and carefully points us to Christ. It did me good to read it!
Life is wild, and by wild I don't mean awesome and fun. Life can be wildly tough. In Life in the Wild, Dan DeWitt teaches us why life is terrible at times and where to turn. But there's hope and you'll find our Hope shared in these pages!
The book is accessible, short, written to engage someone skeptical or new to Christianity, and full of hope. Like the Bible, it’s book-ended with a discussion of Eden, as it was and as it will be when God restores this world. In the final chapter, which is on death, he writes, “God’s final enemy, death itself, has to die. . . . [T]he Bible makes it certain: one day death will be placed in a coffin. In the last act of human history, we will read death’s obituary”... continue reading
A great book which looks at how this world is full of evil, pain and suffering. It has a constant reminder that for Christians this is OK because this world is not our home and we have a great savior in Jesus. I would recommend it to any christian.
I enjoyed this description of the Christian life, highlighting in places the contrast with alternatives. There are several pieces of creative writing/memorable phrases ("Living in the land of meh"; "shame grows in isolation"; "human history marches to the cadence of providence") which help to make the book engaging, and reveal the challenges of a faithful life in fresh ways. In a short book, the author still manages to quote from a wide range of writers to reinforce his points. All in all, I found it a helpful and stimulating read!
Dan's book is an engaging read. It is filled with theological truth and practical application. His use of great contemporary illustrations helps to drive his points home. Dan's subject of the fall of mankind and living in a fallen world is one that many authors have discussed. However, Dan addresses these topics with a cultural awareness that reminds people of their condition and position before God and the war they are at with themselves. After demonstrating thrdr truths of the human condition before God He then paints the way to Jesus as the one who has conquered death and is now the one who can enable us live "Life in with Wild" as we wait his glorious return. It is well done and I highly recommend it!
This was a fun and insightful little book.
Dan DeWitt is a master of analogy. He sees Biblical truth everywhere.
His writing style was slightly reminiscent of C.S. Lewis to me. The content was not hyper-organized but littered with golden nuggets.
One thing I really appreciate is how Dan DeWitt takes the creation story seriously. There is so much truth to be found in the first chapters of the Bible that deeply impacts how we understand our world today.
In order to best live in the wild, we need to understand what life was like before the wild, and what is promised to come after. Dan DeWitt does a great job making the case, and in an artistic way, for having faith as we make our way through the wild.
I need to start my review with a confession: I'm awful at reading Christian books. I've started 2 or 3 in the past few years, but despite initial enthusiasm, I've not finished any of them. As a busy mum with 3 small children, it's hard to make time unless what you're reading is relevant and accessible .... and this is where Life in the Wild was different. I read it cover to cover in about a month, and really enjoyed it!
The early chapters got me hooked. What was written rang so true for me; that no matter how hard we try, we are messed up people living in a messed world. Using illustrations from Dickens to Disney (!) each chapter looks at different realities of the fall like guilt, shame, broken relationships, suffering and death. But rather than being a depressing read, we are constantly reminded of the hope, reassurance and redemption that Jesus offers. Thank you, Dan DeWitt for a compassionate, hopeful, thought-provoking and Christ-centred start to 2018.
I just finished reading the pre-released copy of Life in the Wild and all I can say is outstanding. Life in the Wild is easy to read, insightful and to the point as Dan walks the reader through the biblical narrative of Genesis 3. Dan reminds us that while we live in the aftermath of sins desturction, hope has come through the person and work of Jesus. Without a doubt, the reader will love the humor, the contemporary examples Dan draws his illustartions from and the truth He presents for a life changing experieince that is only found in Jesus. Life in the wild is book for everyone to carefully consider as they walk in this sin touched world.
In Life in the Wild, Dan Dewitt continues to do what he does best. He helps us to better understand, from a Biblical worldview, where we are and how we can process the world around us. He starts off the book by explaining our dilemma and how we ended up in what he calls “the wild,” the place between the Garden of Eden and eternity in God’s presence. We have a longing for what was lost and a longing for the blessings that are to come in the future, but now, we are stuck in a place that is marred by sin. Dan walks his readers through several different categories of life to show us not only how to survive but how to thrive in the wild (which we can’t actually do by ourselves). All of the chapters were helpful (you should see all my highlights), but looking back on the book, there were a couple of topics that continue to come to mind. First, the explanation regarding guilt and shame, their relationship to each other and their differences, is something that I haven’t ever really heard before, and this book has changed the way I view those categories. Second, the idea of stewardship of the earth being a Christian duty is one that we don’t hear very often in an age where somehow that seems to come across to people as a secular/liberal thing to do. Lastly, the chapters related to death provide some of the most thought-provoking sentences of the whole book. There are many other things I could say about this book, but I will leave it at that. If you are a human being living between Eden and eternity, this book is for you. Read it and be encouraged for your journey in the wild.
This book is instructive and delightful to read. DeWitt provides keen insight from Scripture that helps us understand what it means to live in a broken world, which he calls the wild. DeWitt also provides connections with works of literature and film from Dickens, Lewis, Tolkien, Star Wars, and more.
Overall, this is a helpful book for believers who need to be reminded of biblical truths and the hope that one day all things will be made new. I think this book would also be valuable for small groups, high school and college students, and new believers. It is biblically rich and wonderfully accessible.
As Dan Dewitt says throughout the book, "Life sucks." That is just the reality of life. We live in a world that is terribly broken. We live life in the wild. Yet within the Christian worldview this is what we should expect. Dan says, "The biblical picture of living in the world is a constant sense of not belonging. We're exiles — and this foreign country isn't friendly." We are caught in between Eden and Eternity. We live in-between the perfect world that God created — a paradise that was lost — and the perfect world that God will create. "So what are we going to do about it?" Life in the Wild is an excellent book that wrestles with that very question.
What I love about this book is that Dan Dewitt doesn't down play the reality of evil neither does he paint a picture of hopelessness. Rather Dan points our attention to Jesus. Jesus is the better older brother. Jesus is the Second Adam who unlike the First Adam was perfectly obedient to the Father. It is through a "life-changing encounter with Jesus" that we can face life in the wild with hopeful expectation. This book points the reader to what was and what will be. It handles the issue of pain and suffering with clarity. This world is not how it should be that is for sure but Dan reminds the readers that the story is not finished. One day God will make all things right and the tragedy of life will be transformed into a divine comedy.
Dan references Star Wars, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Charlie Brown, etc. and invites the readers to examine where history has been and where it is going. However, even apart from these references Dan's voice on Life in the Wild can be clearly perceived. He writes with wisdom and offers a helpful perspective on some of life's most difficult questions.
