Adventure Is Out There!

If you are a normal person, you travel without any hitches, and if a hitch occurs, someone in your party throws a temper tantrum. That person should never travel with me because the journey will not be without small complications.  It’s the complications and hitches that makes traveling an adventure. An adventure is much more fun to endure than a smooth trip because an adventure has thrills, excitement, difficulties, and triumphs. Life should be an adventure not a smooth comfortable trip.

In the Disney movie, Up, it is exclaimed throughout the film, “Adventure is out there!” Throughout the film the characters discover that adventure is not always somewhere out there, but with us every day if we just look for it.

On an adventure you see new places, take in the scenery, eat exotic food (or at least food you don’t indulge in every day), and meet the most interesting people. I strike up conversations with people all around me. The people teach so much about life. the scenery reminds me that there are beautiful places all over our world. If in our own hometowns we would appreciate the beauty of what is around us, especially the people, we would discover how spectacular life can be. we wouldn’t fear the unknown or people we do not know, but we would embrace them with our presence and take a risk to speak to them and show kindness.

On an adventure, there are difficulties. We get lost in new places; we get caught in storms; we go to places that are not as great as the brochure said they were, and we honestly get frustrated with our fellow travelers. There are always difficulties, but it’s how we respond to them that creates in us a spirit that continues to move forward and fight whatever battle is in our way. Life needs to be an adventure. We need to face every bump in the road with a fresh perspective that even in the hitches and complications in life, there is beauty in the journey. It’s only through failures and complications and tragedies do we grow stronger and learn more about who we are.

On an adventure, we take risks and discover that we are stronger than what we thought we were. Whether it is eating food we have never tried, or exerting a physical activity that we thought we could not conquer, or exploring a place on the path that went in a different direction. We must take risks in life in order to grow as people. Taking a risk means leaving our comfort zone to grow and learn in order to make a difference in the world. If we never leave our comfortable space, how can we really make a difference?

On an adventure, we meet new people who are different from the people who we usually befriend. In our lives every day, we should be making a conscious effort to gout outside of our comfort zone and meet people in order to show them who Jesus is. It can be a friendly gesture to a barista, especially a new one, or the clerk at a store. It can be a parent who is in public with little ones running around testing every facet of the parent. A kind word can make a world of difference to someone. We never know what someone else’s struggles are.

As I read the gospels, I have discovered that every day with the Jesus the disciples had an adventure. They experienced Jesus calming storms on the water, healing various diseases, saw demons come out of people, ate with various people that many religious leaders considered unfit, went to many places, broke rules on the Sabbath, and one even was able to walk on water. Most of all, they experienced Jesus’s love and grace, especially through his sacrifice on the cross. In the end, those disciples created their own adventures and the church was born. It was not comfortable or easy, but in the end, the adventure was well worth it.

So, I may be in another state from where I live, but I have learned that I need to take my adventurous spirit with me and create an adventure that is well worth it. “Adventure is out there!” All that is needed is to step out of our comfort zones and into the unknown of a great big world waiting for us.