Up until this past week, I have had a lot of free time. I did not have a job, was not going to school, and I really did not have many other obligations. It opened up a lot of possibility for great adventures, the kind that have no real plan but just go where you let them. It started with a trip down to Texas where I spent time with family, old friends, and even met a couple great people that I’ll be going on the Race with. Then, the following week, I went down to Arizona with my dad where I was able to see some more of the breathtaking beauty that God created and then meet up with another buddy who I’ll be spending 9 months with. That being said, this post is probably going to be a stereotypical post about how God calls us out of a life of comfort and into a life of adventure. Knowing that, you can stop reading now, it’s really up to you.
I am not much of a reader. I wish I was, I really do. Words are so powerful in the way that they resonate with people, whether the author intended it or not. Shamefully, I will admit that I do not even the read the Bible as much as I would like; something I have been working towards for quite some time. However, over the past year or so, I have read more books than I ever did in high school. Most recently, I read this great book by John Eldredge called Wild at Heart, and I wanted to share something that really stuck with me.
“Most men, you see, marry for safety; they choose a woman who will make them feel like a man but never really challenge them to be one. A young man whom I admire is wrestling between the woman he is dating and one he knew but could not capture years ago. Rachel, the woman he is currently dating, is asking a lot out of him, truth be told, he feels in way over his head. Julie, the woman he did not pursue, seems more idyllic; in his imagination she would be the perfect mate. Life with Rachel is tumultuous; life with Julie seems calm and tranquil. ‘You want the Bahamas,’ I said. ‘Rachel is the North Atlantic. Which one requires a true man?’ In a brilliant twist of plot, God turns our scheme for safety on us, requiring us to play the man.”
I think what I like most about that is that it doesn’t have to be about dating. Sure, it was taken out of the chapter titled A Beauty to Rescue and has very much application when we consider relationships and marriage, but there’s so much more to it. It can be applied to every aspect of our lives whether it be our career or even just our daily activities. We may fantasize the perfect reality in which everything goes how we’d like, we have the career we always wanted in which we’re always keeping our heads above the water, we have the beautiful spouse who fills every need that we have, almost as if it were up to them to do so. Or maybe we choose the route that doesn’t require us to step out. You know, where we just go with what comes natural to us and is easy. I’m not talking about God-given gifts that we have, because those are just as important as our passions, but I’m talking about the things that don’t require much out of us. Either way, the fantasy lifestyle and the comfortable lifestyle are not what I want. I don’t want the Bahamas, I want the North Atlantic, I want what’s going to require me to lean on God when the waters are rough, and what’s going to require me to give God all the glory when the storms calm. You can look at many of the disciples and learn quickly that they never really settled down, nor did they often lose sight of God.
Many people have already said this before and I’ve heard it many times but it wasn’t until I looked at it through this lens that I really began to understand it. You see, for so long I had convinced myself that I wanted to be an engineer. Not because it was ever anything that I really cared about, but because math and science had always clicked in my head and it was a convenient option. I’m not going to say that I’ve taken a step in a different direction and that I’m abandoning that route, I don’t know what direction I am headed in, I just know that I want that constant challenge and progression, that adventure. Not the kind of cliché rebellious adventure where I’m never in one place, although that is rather glamorous, but just that unpredictability, where I am never too content.
In Christ,
Thomas
