I don’t know if we have become naive to the wildness of God’s heart or if we have just become numb in how comfortable we are obsessed with being
“It’s a dangerous business, walking out one’s front door.”
Isn’t it funny, the very things that scare us are the very things that mold us into who we are today?
The very opportunities we rationalize just so in order to remove the uncertainty of what seems daunting to us causes us to miss the very ways God uses to bring abundant life to our door step.
It is a grand invitation God gives us, offering a chance to be removed from our many built comforts and engage in the real and tangible world awaiting beyond the fanciful fences of safety.
Bilbo’s reaction to Gandalf comes to mind from The Hobbit when he offers Bilbo Baggins the opportunity for just this . . . a way out beyond himself and into something bigger.
“The world is not in your books and maps . . . it’s out there.”
We have been taught our entire lives to be “safe.” From the best of well intentions from our mothers or wives or even friends . . . because they don’t want harm to come to us or at least avoiding the possibility. For good reasons to be sure do we tell each other these same things . . . to be “safe.”
We live in a fallen and dark world so there is a dire need for safety and to have a sense of caution.
But to what extent . . . and to what end?
Where would this path of “safety” lead us if not away from the dangers of true adventure?
The irony is we tend to lean away from the very thing we actually desire.
We long for adventure, yet shun what it brings with it . . .
Risk . . . uncertainty . . . pain.
Of course we aren’t typically scared of the joys and excitement and grand memories made when living out adventure for that is attractive to us always.
But it isn’t those things at all that keep us from it either.
I have been told so many times to “get out of your head” or “stop over-thinking things, Chris.”
Why is that?
Am I that intelligent that my brain just cannot turn off?
Or is there something else at work here?
Could it be that I have had some long and wearisome miles through the years of pain and disappointment that have caused my defenses to be engaged just so that my mind has fired my heart from taking the lead?
In those moments where I may need to “get out of my head,” could it be that it’s because I simply do not want to be hurt the way I have been before?
Yes, with adventure comes pain. There is no getting around that.
Me and a buddy set off to go kayaking down a river we had never been on before so we didn’t know what to expect or the risks involved.
As we were walking alongside the river looking for a good place to launch off from, I prayed a very simple and to-the-point type of prayer.
“Father, I want an adventure. Give us an adventure today. Let us have an adventure with You.”
That was it . . . all I prayed.
I almost drowned that day, at least that is how it felt when I experienced . . . well, almost drowning.
In terms of me actually being in danger of actually dying by suffocating under water, I think it is safe to say God knew I wasn't going to just like Jesus knew the disciples were not going to drown during the storm they had found themselves in long ago.
But, it definitely felt like I was going to die that day.
I found myself getting sucked into a hydraulic effect as water poured on top of me down a man-made break that looked like a mini-water fall.
My buddy had no idea what was happening because he had fallen out of his kayak as well and made it to shore because he had a white-water kayak and I had an open-water hybrid not meant for white water.
We were not expecting to run into what we did.
I was not expecting to almost drown like I did.
The Lord saved me that day as I cried out to Him literally to save me.
That is the adventure that He gave me?
Yes.
I don’t know if we have become naive to the wildness of God’s heart or if we have just become numb in how comfortable we are obsessed with being.
Either way, we don’t know what true adventure is.
We just don’t.
Like children we want things now, easy, and perfect.
We don’t like to get messy and we don’t like pain.
That’s fine if you want to stay a child your whole life and live accordingly.
But if we want to be molded into all God has for us, we must embrace adventure for all it comes with.
Uncertainty is what shapes us.
Pain is what shapes us.
Imperfection is what shapes us.
Risk and learning what courage is in the midst of fear is what shapes us.
Adventure shapes us.
God has an adventure for each one of us our entire life if we let Him lead us into them.
Look around right now at your life.
Is it what you expected it to be?
Life is full and plentiful of adventures as grand as God’s heart is and as true as the sun rises.
We are shaped by adventure.
So embrace your life . . . your adventure you are in right now . . . because it may be closer to you than you think it is.
(quotes used from the film, The Hobbit)
