I’m writing this post to tell you about a book I read in 2015. I loved this book back then, and I love it today.
The title is Yawning at Tigers: You Can’t Tame God, So Stop Trying. The author is Drew Dyck, who works for Christianity Today magazine.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Drew Dyck or Yawning at Tigers, so the best way I can explain this book is to reference another book you may be familiar with – C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a delightful fantasy that transports the reader to the land of Narnia, where talking animals and magical powers abound.
The hero of Lewis’ book is a lion, not a tiger. His name is Aslan, and he is symbolic of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Before meeting Aslan for the first time, Susan (one of the main characters) asks, “Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
Mr. Beaver responds, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Aslan is both unsafe and good. How can this be? This is the mystery of the character of God. This is what Drew Dyck calls “the grand paradox of the Christian faith.”
And this is the premise of Yawning at Tigers – God is both holy and loving, “transcendent and immanent, other and intimate.” He is above and beyond, yet present. Like Aslan, he is dangerous and terrifying, yet merciful, kind, and compassionate.
Are you surprised to hear God described as dangerous, terrifying, and unsafe? This is one aspect of God’s nature that we prefer to conveniently overlook, isn’t it? And such a reaction is common, even among believers. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.” Conquering this false notion is the very reason that Mr. Dyck wrote his book.
Even though the Bible is clear regarding the paradoxical nature of God’s character, Mr. Dyck contends that evangelicals have opted for a “one-sided portrayal” of God. We love to focus on God’s love, but “rarely do we hear about God’s mystery and majesty, let alone whisper a word about his wrath.”
And so “something is missing” in the evangelical church. Our understanding of God has become unbalanced. Gone are the reverence and awe, the fear and trembling, that you read in Scripture when a believer encounters the Holy One of Israel. We have lost sight of an authentic picture of God.
We are yawning at tigers (or lions). We don’t tremble at God because we have tamed him.
This is a serious indictment, is it not? Could Mr. Dyck be correct in his assessment of today’s evangelical church? I believe he is. And for this I applaud him. He is to be commended for confronting us about our distorted view of God.
As I think about my own experience in evangelicalism, I realize now that in the past twenty years I have heard only one sermon about hell. Yet how many times did Jesus mention hell in his three-year ministry? How often did Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles speak of God’s wrath? Far more than we do. Mr. Dyck has his finger on the pulse of Bible-believing churches.
I believe this book presents an accurate and much-needed criticism of a serious problem. Therefore, I highly recommend Yawning at Tigers for these reasons:
- Mr. Dyck’s indictment is supported with solid biblical teaching. The author is a gifted Bible teacher, and he explains the character of God by first going to Scripture. He expounds passages like Exodus 32 and Isaiah 6 with great insight.
- The author is a gifted storyteller. You’ll hear about his vacation to Hawaii and his short-term mission trip to Albania. And before you know it, he has taught you something marvelous about God. He uses personal experiences to tell 21st-century parables that lead us to tremble in God’s presence or embrace him for his tenderness.
- He is also well-read and quotes freely from evangelicals such as A.W. Tozer, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul. Mr. Dyck is not the only modern-day prophet to call the church out for its twisted view of God. He is following in the footsteps of other great men of the Word.
- Finally, I like this book because it presents the antidote to our overemphasis on God’s love. By devoting the first half of his book to God’s holiness and the second half to God’s goodness, the author has provided a wonderful example of a balanced treatment of the character of God. Should not the church be doing the same in our worship and preaching and teaching?
Evangelicals would do well to heed the warning and the instruction found here. I pray that many would read this book and interact with its content. A discussion guide is included that is ideal for both individual and small group study.
Yawning at Tigers is available on Amazon.com and at your local Christian bookstore. And if you live in Allen County, Indiana, it’s available at the public library for free.
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