This is the view from our front porch in Bolivia, where we lived and worked at an orphanage this month in the mountains and jungle.
How do I continue to embrace the adventures that God has for me? God is showing me how much a good adventure relates to telling a good story. In fact, it’s even more than the adventure, as thrilling as an adventure might sound. “People can’t live without a story, without a hero to play.” I have been reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller and it is so good because it shows how much choice is involved, but also how once you make the choice to live a better story, anything can happen!
We need a purpose in life. “Without a vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18
I have been calling out to God to show me my purpose in life and all that He has for me. What is my role, my purpose? What is my story? I want a better story than just waiting for life to happen. It’s about the choices you make. I don’t want to choose mediocrity anymore and this is something I have been leaning into with God, accepting the invitations for the more that He has for me.
“And once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don’t have a choice. Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die and it’s not natural to want to die.”
This is something that really resonates with me. The story I lived before was average and I didn’t know my purpose. We all struggle with this as part of the human life, but even more so in our culture and age, as I experienced in my own search for a good story in my life. It is very telling when the author speaks about his friend’s family. The daughter’s search was for a better story and this led her to fall for a boy who didn’t treat her well. She threw herself into the story because she didn’t have any alternative story that called out to her to join in.
“He thought about the story his daughter was living and the role she was playing inside that story. He realized he hadn’t provided a better role for his daughter. He hadn’t mapped out a story for his family. And so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. In the absence of a family story, she’d chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence.” After this, he provided a better story for his daughter and wife to join in together, where they set a goal to help build orphanages in Mexico. At first, the family resisted the idea, but they both came to embrace it and went all in on the story. The family pulled together in this way and the daughter found her true role, her true story.
I decided I wanted more too in my own life. I had taken part of a story that led nowhere for a long time. I pursued what I thought would satisfy me from the world; but I was left emptier than before. The world told me lies and I fell into its embrace: addictions, the search for love, the search for more. This led to a desire for a true purpose, a better story; that is part of why I decided to go on the Race, to follow the adventure that God has for me and to discover what my purpose is.
“Suddenly the voice, and I am talking about the Writer who is not me, pounded on the keyboard, broke the pencil on the paper and was so emphatic.” I love these moments when you know that there is more—it is so clear and you have to make the next move. “And this time, I trusted him and I knew He would guide me through a better story.”
This story led me to embrace and choose adventure even more in Bolivia. I asked God to show me how to accept His invitations for a better story and for adventure and He showed them to me everyday. It looks different for every person and in every place. But I more consistently chose the adventure God was putting in front of me in some of the following ways.
- I ran down a muddy hill with one of the little girls at the orphanage, slipping, sliding and falling as we laughed our way down.
- I saw how a little girl at the orphanage showed perfect trust in her Heavenly Father by running ahead of me, not worrying about who was behind her or what was ahead, just joyfully embracing all before her and trusting that her Papa would take care of her.
- I met with God every morning and listened to what He thought about me while overlooking the view of mist covered mountains in the jungle
- I shared the joy with the kids at the orphanage everyday
- I climbed a waterfall with some of my teammates and our Bolivian friends
- I ran around with the little kids at the orphanage; played tag, hide and seek and just enjoyed each other’s presence
What is the vision, the story, the role that you feel led to jump into? Take a step towards it today, even the tiniest step and share below. Don’t let your dream die.
Without vision, the people will perish.
