I am notorious for getting lost. Even when I use GPS, I can manage to get lost. Ask any of my former youth group members, and they will confirm that I can get lost even in a city that I know well, and while flying, which is a story for another time. Somewhere in my youth ministry conferences, I was informed to create an adventure when you get lost on youth group trips, so I did. Now, when I get lost while going somewhere in Los Angeles or travelling across America, I connect it to being an adventure.
An adventure has many elements. There’s the anticipation of fun. We delight in the idea of trying something new or going to a new place or meeting new people. Then, there’s the element of danger. In any adventure, there is danger involved. The danger tests our faith and either gives us strength or weakens us. In any adventure there is a choice. We can choose which path to take. We can change our choice. We can move in any direction, which can help or harm our adventure.
Life is an adventure. There are times on the journey where the adventure is full of dangerous times and scary incidents. There are times when the adventure of life is joyous, and we wish we could stop time and hold those moments forever. One element that an adventure has is that we must keep moving. Sometimes, we slip and try to go backward, which just makes it more difficult. Sometimes, we make the wrong choice, and our journey is difficult. Sometimes, events out of our control hits us, and we must make decisions that we never thought we would have to make.
Since life is an adventure, we must move forward. We cannot continually live in the past. Connecting with friends from the past and reminiscing is great, but we must also build a friendship with them in the present so we can join in with them on their life adventure and move forward and not stay stuck in the past with them. Once we decide to live in the past, we choose to stop living by faith. We would rather live by what we know and what we can see. Living in the present and leaving the past behind requires faith. Live in faith and in the present and move in the direction of the future.
We may be unsure of what the present and the future holds, but we cannot go back to the past. The past is gone. What we remember has changed, or how we remember it is with more sentiment than it deserves. An adventure always requires for us to take a risk. Take a risk and step away from the past and move forward. It’s worth it. You will move forward with faith, and your faith will increase.
Sometimes the risk in an adventure requires us to question what we thought we knew. Questions are not bad. If we are willing to ask questions, we are revealing that we are thinking. Questions are not bad. We must ask questions on our adventure, or we will allow someone else to control us. On an adventure, a question can direct us in the right direction once we discover the answer.
Sometimes our adventure is difficult because of a wrong choice. Many times, I got lost because I did not pay attention to the signs or to the details on a plane ticket. It’s when we are not aware that we make mistakes. Staying aware of life means we must listen and study for ourselves answers for which we are looking. It means we don’t just agree with those who agree with us or because our political party or our pastors said it. We must think for ourselves and take ownership of our own choices. We make mistakes and sin when we are not aware of how our actions are making others miserable. We must repent and turn onto the right path.
Sometimes, on our adventures, an element knocks us off our path that is out of our control. We have choices. We can blame the element or person that did this. We can blame God, or we can find how we can continue to move through our adventure and in the future learn from this disaster. Trials in life that hit us are supposed to develop in us maturity and perseverance. How we respond to the trials brings maturity or immaturity. Blaming others or God will only bring heartache and you will not be able to move forward from the tragedy. You will just remain immature, bitter, and angry. Reaching out for help from those who can help and turning to God to guide you will bring you out on the other side with maturity and perseverance. Your character as stated in James 1 will have grown.
In the summertime, many of us go places and take an actual adventure. Whether you leave your house or not, focus on how your life is revealing the direction of your adventure. If your direction is leading to growth, you are on the right path. If you are doing the same mistakes, and it feels like you are going in circles, change direction. It will cause growth and health in you. Adventures make life full. It brings us growth spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally. So, as we commence upon this summer, let us go and have a great adventure!
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