“Amigos, hey, amigos! Nessa, Yeti, Agapetos, Zeo,” a voice pierces the night and jolts me awake. “Amigos, Amigos. Hey Amigos,” rings out again, followed by the clanging of pots and pans and honking of horns. The words are beginning to register. It¢¥s still pitch dark outside. Tent flies are being unzipped. “Hey, Amigos, Nessa, Zeo, Agapetos.” This time I laugh. It¢¥s race day. Why would we not be awaken at 5 am by shouting and clanging of pans instead of noon, like previously planned? And what about everybody jumping in the cold river before the break of dawn? OK! I guess I can handle that. I need a shower anyway. And change of plans? Sure. Why not end up in Antigua, Guatemala instead of the previously planned destination? Never mind it¢¥s 5 o¢¥clock in the morning and the roosters haven¢¥t even awaken yet? The adventure has begun.
God is funny like that. Very rarely is his timing our timing. And talk about the master “plan changer”. How many times has my life totally changed directions? Too many to count. How often do we question God¢¥s leading because it doesn¢¥t make since to us (jumping in the cold river at 5am)? I feel that this race down to Antigua is symbolic of the life we live in Christ. In Him, our souls are destined for adventure. Our hearts are called to trust in Him alone and our minds are wrecked by the journey. As we live in utter abandonment, we no longer can rely on our own understanding…we are fools for Christ.
We retreat back to our tents. God created adventure to romance us and draw us closer to him. And to teach us how to rely on him for provision in our lives. After 30 minutes of alone time with the Lord, we jump in the river, rip our tents down and load all our belongings on top of a 14 passenger van. Right before we take off, I run back down to camp to grab some water. In route, I trip over a stick, face dive into the mud and split my toe open. “How frustrating,” I yell to myself. “This is not the time or place for something like this to happen!” We quickly dip my toe in an alcohol solution, slap on some guaze and wrap old faithful – duct tape – around the entire toe. Once again we are off and running- no time for delays.
Our adventure with the Lord is not void of struggles. We will face challenges that will cause us to stop, reflect and just be still. He will draw us back to himself over and over again ?especially when we rush off on a bunny trail on our own, mentally and spiritually leaving him in our dust. He is a jealous God and wants to walk hand in hand with us each step of the way!
So, we find out our van driver, Sebastian, knows a shortcut to the Mexico/Guatemala border. Of course, in our competitive nature, we embrace this idea. After six hours of driving and still not reaching the border, we come to the conclusion that this “shortcut?is indeed taking longer than the four hours it should take to get to the border.
After years of experience, I¢¥ve come to realize that God isn¢¥t a huge fan of shortcuts. It¢¥s not about the ultimate destination. It¢¥s about the journey. It¢¥s though the adventure that God woos us to himself and matures us in our walk with Him. Most of the time its to our disadvantage to take the shortcut in life. Why would we want to miss out on part of the adventure?
By 7:30 that night, we finally arrive in Antigua. Our adrenaline begins to race. We need to find a coffee shop called “Higher Grounds” – and before the other teams. Who ever arrives at this location first wins the race. We are following one team, but have no idea if the other groups have already arrived or not. We could be first, or we could be last. The excitement and tension rise even more as we pull up to the curb of the caf? People spill out of the van and sprint up to the sign that reads “Higher Grounds”. We are handed another envelope. Come to find out, this is not the end of the race – there is more to come tomorrow.
Our adventure with the Lord is never over. When we think our journey is coming to an end, the Lord will either invite us to come further up and further in or lead us down another path. He delights in showing us more of himself and more of his creation. When we are walking hand in hand with the Lord, our world will be rocked. Our days will be filled with utter joy, passion and excitement. God created us to live this life to the full. God created adventure. To His glory, he created us to be most fully alive while living the adventure with him as our compass, our companion, our protector and our provider.
