Rumors of the Epic Life

I’ll start off by saying I’ve always had a hunger for more.
Dunno what to call it. Hunger for the epic life. Hunger for more
adventure and more meaning. A life of purpose and nobility and
sacrifice that I’ve never known but have always yearned for. Right, get me?

Whatever it is, I’ve felt this thing forever.
Long before I knew God, my hunger was fed most by portraits of radical,
purposeful lives. Movies of historical martyrs, and literary heroes,
and soaring musical crescendos, and all that. Ever notice how you can
add music to a video of ordinary life and it suddenly becomes
meaningful and dramatic and cool? I wanted to find a life that felt like that, all the time. So, we’ll come back to that later.

Anyway, so for years I survived on hints and rumors
of what this epic life could be. I was captivated by Ayn Rand’s Howard
Roark, this stoic self-propelled creative. I was intrigued by Fight
Club’s elite urban guerillas. It was funny. I refer back to this time
as my “Warrior Phase.” Of course, this implies that the phase is over, but the hunger that drove it has always remained.

So then Jesus found me, and I finally understood that the hunger for the “epic life” was all along just a hunger for life with God, for the “life abundant”
that John 10 talks about. Cool, right? I mean the Bible is like the
ultimate epic, the authoritative story of purpose and sacrifice. And so
my model shifted, and I looked to the lives of Jesus, Paul, etc.,
hoping to finally grasp what the adventure was supposed to be. Good.

But then, amid all the change of the following two years, I didn’t find the life abundant. In fact I was still pretty bored. A lot of wonderful things were happening . . . but something was still missing. I’m not sure what it was, I just knew that my hunger remained unsatisfied. There had to be something more out there to find. Since you’re reading this, I’m guessing you know the feeling.

So, as college ended and gave way to more independence, I kept searching. And I found the World Race.

Good Lord, nothing could’ve been more perfect. There was ambition, risk, and promise of everything
I’d always yearned for. Give up your stuff, see the world, chase after
God with all abandon, and in the process learn who you are. Brilliant. All the images, videos, and testimonials lined up perfectly. I was sold out, and signed up. I was giddy.

The anticipation grew and grew. Like, training camp was full of great stories from ex-Racers, teaching about the Holy Spirit’s anointing, tales
of change and growth and giftings unlocking, identities forming. We
were going to become anointed warriors, prophets, apostles; we were
going to forcefully advance the Kingdom; we were going to shake the
gates of Hell.

So, clearly, I was about to jump into everything I’d ever wanted. A year of epic, abundant life with God. The answer to my cravings.

And you can see how so many of us feel this way. Study our blog titles, our careful photo choices. Everything looks so stinkin cool! Look at my videos, too. Just clips of ordinary life, with spicy music, and well-timed cuts, and suddenly I’ve convinced you that my life is just this constant adventure, this continual epic of coolness. Right?