Every 3 to 4 months I search my county’s public library website using the term “nature essays”. When I did so a few months ago a new book, The God of Wild Places, by Tony Jones, was atop the list. The title intrigued me as I often feel closer to God while out in nature.

The God of Wild Places is an autobiography. It relates the author’s transition from young pastor to outdoorsman. Early in his career Tony Jones was, by most people’s definition, a tremendous success. He had followed his dream of becoming a minister, took over the leadership of his childhood church, and was gaining notoriety on a national level as a public speaker on spirituality and religion. On the surface things looked good. But in fact, his life was a facade. He was in a severely fractured marriage and had a home environment full of conflict. It took him years to face the reality that his marriage was unsalvageable, and that juggling act led to significant anxiety and depression.

Having grown up in Minnesota, Jones had exposure to the outdoors in his youth. Much of his time in the wilds was on church youth group activities and family visits to their remote lakeside camp in the Boundary Waters. But it was not a defining part of his life as an adult.

As he struggled to recover from a divorce in his mid thirties, and the unwinding of his pastoral career, he chose to spend more time in the outdoors; canoeing the lakes of upstate Minnesota, visiting the rural family property, and learning hunting from a few men who initially were more acquaintances than the good friends they would become. With these outings he found the peace and tranquility that had long been absent from his life.

In the introduction Jones said “Most of us don’t quit church in a huff, storming out mid-sermon, vowing never to return. Instead, we slide away slowly, attending less and less often until one day we’re forced to admit, “I don’t go to church anymore”.

Through ten chapters named Vestments, Peace, Place, Companions, Predator, Failure, Risk, Meat, Death, and God, Jones speaks on the spirituality of the wilderness, and how it helped him heal and find himself. He interweaves thoughts and lessons from his theology training, the Bible, and other outdoor writers who, likewise, found peace in wild places.

Within the chapters Jones celebrates the beauty of God’s creation, whether it be the grain of oak wood, a walk through an Aspen thicket, or the night sky – he specifically gives credit to God.

Some of my favorite passages from the book include:

Jones recalled a week long adolescent church canoe trip of his youth, when the group of boys got near the end of their journey and asked their youth minister, why he did not lead them in Bible study or even a prayer while on the trip. Jones wrote, “Firelight dancing across his face, Paul swept his arms across the lake in front of us, raised his palms to the starry sky, and said, ‘How could you be out here in God’s creation and not be in a constant state of prayer?”

When speaking of his multi-generational lakeside family property, he says, “I meet God here”.

Recalling a sign that he noted at a friend’s fishing cabin. “I’d rather be in a fishing boat thinking about God than sitting in a church thinking about fishing”.

“God really is there, in the wild untamed places, among the flora and fauna that cohabit this planet with us”.

“And that’s a big part of it: remembering that peace doesn’t live in the wilderness, waiting for me. The wilderness is the catalyst, …. blowing on that ember of peace that dwells deeply within me, bringing it to full flame”.

And perhaps my favorite – “I wouldn’t say that my understanding of God’s love has changed. What’s changed is the medium by which that love is delivered to me. What used to come via sermon and hymn and liturgy comes now by tree and plant and animal.”

The last chapter, titled “God”, revisits the themes of the previous chapters, and succinctly focuses them on the presence of God in wild places. Jones asks the reader to consider wilderness as God’s work and to protect it. Something to be cherished, not pillaged. I found the chapter helpful for coalescing my thoughts on the spirituality in nature with statements like “The God of wild places offers peace” and “The God of wild places offers place”. In my life I frequently comment on the need to achieve a “sense of place”. On the simplest terms, I believe those are the reasons so many people buy rural properties – that the places give them peace. It is not as much about acquiring property, as acquiring “place”. Also, as I reflect on relationships, I think that time spent together outdoors, whether on a hiking trail, in a hunting blind, or fishing, is a big part of the emotional legacy of those relationships, whether they be family or friends. The peace of the outdoors opens the heart and soul to bonding.

Tony Jones’ re-discovery of God in wild places gave his life a new direction and purpose. He is in a happy marriage and active in his young adult children’s lives. And now he has a career as a podcaster and blogger that explores the spirituality of the outdoors, under the title, The Reverend Hunter.

While Jones and I both find peace, or perhaps God’s grace, in wild places, we do so differently. Jones seems to require more remote places, an element of risk in the endeavor, and extended periods of time. I, on the other hand, can find it in the beauty of a wildflower on a ten minute visit to the small wood behind my garage. Even brief encounters with nature sustain me through life’s day to day stressors.

Still, Jones and I are brothers of spirit in the realm of nature. We both understand what being in the great outdoors does to the human psyche and hope that others will join us in embracing and protecting the beauty of God’s creation. After all, perhaps Mother Nature, The Great Spirit of the indigenous peoples, and God are really one and the same – I like to think so.

I would encourage others to read this book, and to contemplate for themselves, how their God is reflected in nature and the beauty of the natural world.

Photos by Peggy Juengling Burns

Links:

https://reverendhunter.com/