The Great Adventure

(Note: This is last week's blog that I failed to upload while I was limiting my data roaming usage)

Well, this is a new one.

 

I'm typing this week's blog on my iPhone sitting in my car waiting in line for a ferry to take us across to Victoria Island in British Columbia.

 

We've already had one adventure today as my GPS phone app sent us on a circuitous route through various Vancouver suburbs to get to the ferry terminal. After 45 minutes of driving, we found ourselves about a mile from our hotel. Where we started. 45 minutes earlier. But, as I kept telling Mrs Sweetie, "It's all good."

 

And it is. Really. We are in a beautiful part of the world. We are together. And for the next 52 hours or so we can do whatever tickles our fancy. And when that 52 hours is up, we will join a group that will spend two days traveling around the Vancouver area being inspired and challenged by what God is doing through new church starts in the West Coast Baptist Association. Not a bad way to spend a week in September.

 

A few years back, Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman released a CD with the title song "The Great Adventure."  Some of the lyrics:

 

"Saddle up your horses; we've got a trail to blaze through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace. Let's follow our Leader into the glorious unknown. This is life like no other. This is the great adventure."

 

Another few lines: "Come on! Get ready for the ride of your life. We're gonna leave long-faced religion in a cloud of dust behind."

 

That was a catchy, uptempo song with a message that connected with a lot of folks. I was one of them. In fact, it connected enough with me that I just quoted all those words from memory. As most people who know me will tell you, I am always up for an adventure.

 

But the whole "life is an adventure thing" can be frustrating at times. We prefer that our adventures be mapped out, organized, and "agenda-ized". We want to plan our work and work our plan.  After all, that's what effective people do, right?

 

Of course that's right. Planning is good and living with intentionality is always more effective than living haphazardly. But sometimes life happens unexpectedly and you have to decide how you are going to respond. Are you going to be "long-faced" and move ahead out of a sense of duty or are you going to charge ahead with a sense of anticipation? Will you see unexpected curves in the road as a sign that God is messing with your carefully laid plans or  you see them as evidence that God wants you to join Him on a grand adventure?

 

We all deal with enough long faces in religion, politics, and life in general. I choose not to add to it.

Let's saddle up!