I like to be a little wild
I like to raise a little cane
I wanna keep it on the edge
And let my restless heart remain untamed
I'm gonna live the way I love
And love the way I live
Walk the highest wire
And stay out on the limb
Away from any fences
Free of any chains
Unbound, untied, untamed
I only want what I've got comin'
I'll take the credit and the blame
Even when I'm bent and broken
I pray my spirit always stays untamed
I'm gonna live the way I love
And love the way I live
Walk the highest wire
And stay out on the limb
Away from any fences
Free of any chains
Unbound, untied, untamed
Not being a country music fan, I was curious who sang this song - turns out that it is a Trace Adkins' tune. When I heard these lyrics, my mind went immediately to the story Jesus told in Luke 15 about the "prodigal son." If someone ever made a musical version of that parable, wouldn't these lyrics be perfect for the young man to sing as he collected his inheritance and set on his way?
All sin boils down to the desire to be autonomous, to call our own shots, whether it is eating fruit marked off limits by the Father, leaving the father's house to go to a far country, or walking "the highest wire" "unbound, untied, untamed." But this journey always leads to disaster. When the prodigal was "bent and broken" the last thing he wanted was to remain "untamed." He wanted to be a slave in his father's house.
I don't know much about Trace Adkins. Ironically, I heard the words of his anthem to autonomy just a few days after he entered rehab for alcohol addiction. My heart goes out to him, as it does to any addict. The cruelest form of bondage is that which happens when we live as if we can be free of any restraint.
Absolute autonomy is an illusion, just as the prodigal discovered when he left the father's house. But in the Father's house there is love, grace, dignity, and even a party, as long as we let our restless hearts find rest in Him.
