In my mind, adventure has always been something you dream about, something romanticized and epic, and it usually involved backpacking across Europe. My mind always relegated it to the future, to daydreaming, or just to someone else’s life. Let’s face it: there’s nothing adventurous about growing up surrounded by fields, going to school, and living a “normal” life. Now, I am still surrounded by fields (granted, in a different state), going to school, and living a “normal” life. I guess my theories about adventure were right after all.
Or, were they?
adventure: an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity
Read that definition a couple more times.
Does that not sound awfully familiar to you? It sounds like following Jesus to me. Not in the future, not in my head, and not in someone else’s life; today, in action, in MY life.
When Jesus asks us to follow Him, He does not ask us to embark on a lifetime of boredom and religious “Simon says.” He asks us to trust Him, to preach about Him no matter how daunting it feels, to carry our cross and embrace suffering for His name. He asks us to embark on a daily adventure with Him, where we follow our Expedition Guide into unknown territory on our campus, our workplace, our city, our neighborhood.
Adventure does not have to mean that you are risking your life out on the mission field, reaching out to unengaged people groups. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing anything outwardly glamorous, or even epic. It doesn’t mean you are going on the World Race. Adventure is doing life with Jesus, dependent on the Holy Spirit, with a schedule that allows you to do so.
In Matthew 8:18-22, Jesus clarifies what it means to follow Him. A scribe announces “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus’ response? “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” …. What the? That seems like a strange response. And yet, Jesus is able to discern that this religious man had improper motives. Underneath his somewhat bizarre response, Jesus is asking, How uncomfortable are you willing to be to follow me?
Next, a disciple reveals his misplaced priorities by asking to bury his father before following Jesus. It is widely believed that this man’s father was not even close to dying, but that he wanted the estate and was postponing following Jesus. Jesus replies, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” He is asking, Are you willing to make me your first priority?
This is what an adventure with Jesus looks like on a daily basis: disregarding personal comfort to obey Him, and making Him the focal point and priority of your day. It’s not about location; it’s about submission. It’s not about radical faith; it’s about childlike faith. It’s an adventure.
“Every day God invites us on [an] adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary. He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over to us, He Whispers, ‘Let’s go do that together.'” – Love Does
I am realizing it is high time I begin following Jesus daily, adventuring together in HIS mission.
Prayer requests: Fundraising! That God will provide, and that people will partner with me in this incredible opportunity to do Kingdom work.
That I will be a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only.
