Over the last 4 months, I have noticed an interesting mental choice we most often don’t realize we make. Perhaps it is more a mindset, a paradigm if you will. When we started the World Race, we were all so anxious to write in our journals about what we did that day. Every time we had a really cool experience or saw something we would never see in the States, we were quick to use the term “blog-worthy” to describe the ‘greatness’ of the moment. Every opportunity we had, we whipped out our cameras and started clicking like the paparazzi around Britney Spears. Every kid or ministry contact or local friend we met, we were so quick to name them one of the coolest people we will ever meet on the whole trip. Every good place we did ministry at, we said we would definitely come back there as soon as we could after the World Race. It would be the first place we would visit after getting home. In short, the first four months of the Race were so filled with adventure. So much more than back home… or so the paradigm goes.
After being on the Race long enough for the newness to wear off, life began to seem ordinary again. Journaling wasn’t as exciting. Cameras weren’t as active. Places weren’t as amazing. And the term “blog-worthy” was all but extinct. Somewhere along the way, adventurous became ordinary. And of course it crossed my mind that I had just seen so much out here in such a short time, that it was kind of hard to impress me. But I kept getting the feeling that there was something more.
This month marks the beginning of the end for us in that this has been the first month that home seems to be an upcoming event, not just a distant thought. This is our last month in Africa, and in 33 days we will begin our fourth and final continent of the World Race. The crazy thing about all this is that it is now bitter sweet to think of going home. No more familiarity of the World Race, and we would begin the adventure of readjusting to life at home. Almost as if they traded places, ordinary is now adventurous. And therein lies the rub.
If the Race can seem ordinary, and home can seem adventurous, do we have a choice? Is it only what we are used to that is ordinary? Are we leaving an ordinary adventure for an adventurous ordinary? Or is it the other way around? When we came out here in January, was it exciting because it was out of the ordinary, or was it exciting because it was truly an adventure the likes of which we could never have at home? Or is it neither?
The point I am trying to make is that it is not so much the events and settings that make something “adventurous” as it is the mindset… the paradigm if you will. When we are at home going about our ordinary lives, it is ordinary because we choose to see it that way. For example, when is the last time you’ve seen a walking stick? Or better yet, when is the last time you’ve looked for one. For me, I had not seen one since I was a young boy at the park until my little cousin Aicia pointed one out to me when we were at the park a year ago. Kids can find adventure in anything because they see life itself as adventurous.
I am not trying to imply that walking sticks are the only adventure to be had back home. On the contrary, if we can see life as children see life, how much greater an adventure could we find in our everyday lives? If this feeble (not to mention head ache inducing) hypothesis is true, we could find adventure, whether we are driving up a mountain road in the back of a lumber truck on our way to a brand new ministry location, or driving up a hill in our Toyota on our way to the same old ministry location known as our job. After all, the driver of our lumber truck was just going about his ordinary, unadventurous, amazing life our God created for him. Need I say more?
