Aslan is no tame lion

A few days ago our family went to see "The Chronicles of Narnia" at the cinema. We loved the film, thought the story stayed pretty close to the book, and were amazed by the special effects and cinematography throughout. I must confess I didn't go with overly high expectations regarding how Hollywood would present Aslan, but I was pleasantly surprised as to how they kept all the major items in the story. It was toward the end of the movie that I was caught by something that was said. A couple of days later, I asked my son, Josiah, about it and he immediately took me to page and paragraph in the book. The quote goes something like this:

"One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."

As I replayed the graphic image of the resurrected Aslan coming up over the mountain peak in the big battle scene, and heard those words--"He's wild, you know"--again in my mind, I wondered if that might be part of the problem with much of Christianity in the western world. We've tried to tame Jesus Christ. Without realising it, we're gradually allowing ourselves to be conformed to the world, and we've lost the "wild" element of life in the Spirit, where "the wind blows wherever it pleases" (John 3:8).

Every government, every societal influence in the western world is trying to create a sterile environment where man is in control of everything and everyone. What we say, what we eat, what we believe is coming under tighter control all the time. This means that we don't care for things that are "not like a tame lion". Unfortunately, many within the Christian world have fallen prey to this antiseptic tendency.

We want people to follow Christ--but only if they feel comfortable with the idea, only if it makes them feel good about themselves, as long as no offence is caused. I can't imagine Jesus today walking into some of the churches and saying, "Take up your cross and follow me ... as long as you're okay with that, or it doesn't cramp your style." The wild Lion who keeps expanding the boundaries and leaping outside of the religious box doesn't fit with our modern world. He doesn't allow us to get comfortable or to establish our own parameters as to how he will work in our lives. No, he doesn't like being tied down.

Many people are leaving traditional Christianity and exploring all kinds of alternative spiritualities and pop religions. I would suggest the biggest reason for this is because we have lost our vision of the "wildness" of Jesus Christ who calls us to new adventures every day. Rather than pursuing an eternal relationship with the living God, we hold on to our human traditions, our religious positions, our flesh-pleasing habits and sins. We give him no opportunity to do his supernatural work of transformation. We end up reducing God to our lowest human common denominator.

If we invite him to take us on his great adventure, we may not be fighting great battle scenes in Narnia every day, but he brings his infinite love, creativity, life, and power into our lives, and transforms us into his image. Give him half a chance, and he will show up when we least expect it, and bring extraordinary things into our ordinary day-to-day lives. If we make a conscious decision to follow the Lion of Judah, and allow him to manifest his "wild" Spirit in our lives, we will find him leading us into an eternity of increasing delight and pleasure in union with our Creator God. This isn't just some Disney fantasy; this is the real thing.