My brother has spent a lot of time studying the Celts and their missionary journeys. He lit up with recognition as we talked and said: “Do you know were the phrase a wild goose chase comes from?” The phrase symbolized, for me, a useless, futile exercise that produced nothing. I wasn’t prepared for the explanation he shared. The Celts had a name for the Holy Spirit - an Geadh-Glas which means the wild goose. By this they meant that the Spirit of God can’t be put in a neat box, confined to a vision and values statement or tamed within a strategic plan. The wild goose is unpredictable (like the wind). Taking seriously this sense of God, Celtic missionaries went on wild goose chases entering the spaces, towns, hamlets, and villages of 7th century England in the conviction that the wild goose was out there ahead of them. They were open to being surprised by the wild goose, prayerfully asking what God was doing and joining there by naming the name of Jesus, dwelling among people and opening the great story of God’s love and grace.
Alan Roxburgh
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