Skip to main content

The Great Adventure

I had a choir director in high school that encouraged us to make “loud” mistakes. We were a timid, young group so many of us would hold back if we were unsure of a note, but he told us if we didn’t make our mistakes audible, it could never be corrected. Looking back on my choir days, I’ve found that this is an applicable lesson to real life.

Now, let me clarify, I’m NOT encouraging purposeful sinning. What I am encouraging is taking risks. I once heard that often times discovering God’s will means doing what you think is God’s will and when it falls flat, trying something else. God does sometimes reveal His will to us (and by will, I mean personal fulfillments of an individual’s role in the grand scheme of the Gospel story), but sometimes we need to just step out in faith and be proven, or disproven.

If you’re like me, the idea of taking risks sounds a bit, well…risky. Control is so much safer. But if you’re like me, you’ve learned that trying to personally control everything is tiring, overwhelming, and ineffective. It is so much more freeing to let go and allow the Creator of the universe to direct and guide your life. The song “Beautiful the Blood” by the worship band Fee makes the profound declaration, “I never knew surrender could feel so free.”

Christianity is not safe. God is not safe. In her song, “Wide Wide World”, Erin O’Donnell expresses that as humans we so often forget that God is not safe. We want to keep things safe and comfortable, but God is calling us to something outside of ourselves; something bigger, something greater. “I’ve got the shakes all over and I wanna turn around, but I’m twice as scared of missing the good that can be found.” God calls us to great things, and oftentimes extremely terrifying things. But the beauty is that God has the power and desire to make fearful people into fearless people.

In my own personal battle between comfortable, familiarity and experiencing the incredible adventure God is calling all of us to, I came to face the realization that in order to risk big, I have to first surrender. We cannot be reckless in our own lives; God commands us to be responsible financially, emotionally, physically, sexually, verbally, etc. But when it comes to doing what God has called us to in order to bring others into the kingdom, we must be willing to risk whatever it takes.

Let us desire to balance responsibility in our lives with a sense of adventure in regards to the things of God. Let us be able to let go of our need for control in experiencing the adventure of God and leave the responsibility for the unabandoned adventure of the spiritual in God's hands.

Comments

  1. Dale ArgotFebruary 1, 2011 at 9:43 AM

    I think I remember that choir director. It seems I still use that line on choirs and I've used it a few times on our praise team at church.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Divine SeekerDecember 13, 2011 at 12:24 PM

    Congrats! You made my blog!! That statement has always made an impact :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christian Atheists

I recently came across a book entitled, “The Christian Atheist: Believing in God, but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist”. While I didn’t read the book, the title intrigued me and got me thinking: how many of those who call themselves “Christians” live this way? We continue to live like the small child who believes he can’t be seen simply because he is covering his eyes and can’t see his parents. We can’t see God, so it won’t matter if I indulge in a secret sin here or there, as long as no one knows, or no one sees. We proclaim a faith in Christ, but live as those His sacrifice means nothing. In my Method & Praxis class one Monday night, we were discussing Kant’s impact on theology and the modern church. Kant taught a philosophical outlook on the world that consequently reduced religion (of the Christian persuasion) to moral living and God to a Santa Claus type figure. I think this is the brand of Christianity a large number of believers have adopted. We opt for the package deal n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reflections for Election Day

It's an unfortunate reality that not only does politics divide our country, it divides Christ's church. In this blog, I'm not going to try to persuade which candidate to vote for, but rather I am going to attempt to urge any and all professing believers to vote responsibly. If you are voting (and I hope that you are) I encourage you to prayerfully consider your decision. I encourage you to use divine discernment in which candidate you mark your ballot for. Please, do not simply vote for the candidate that most benefits what your itching ears want to hear, but rather prayerfully invest in the candidate that will uphold God's standards in his leadership of this nation. Like Israel, the Christian community in America has fallen into the trap of relying on political structures to provide for our needs and even our desires. In 1 Samuel 8, we find that Israel has grown tired of the Judges and Priests that God has given to advise them and demands that they have a king. Sam...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our Father who Art in Heaven...

In the life of a Christian, a few main activities are generally thought of as necessary for spiritual health: reading your Bible, fellowship with other believers, and prayer. Reading your Bible is a key measure in learning the heart and character of God and how we are to interact and respond to Him. Fellowship with other believers gives us accountability and encouragement in our walk with Christ. Prayer at the most basic level is communication with God. It is this last spiritual "discipline" I would like to engage in discussion about for this blog. So often prayer becomes ritual or a list of "God do this" and "God fix that". In regards to ritual prayer, this is clearly missing the point of prayer. Prayer is both commanded and explempified in Scripture. Jesus Himself prayed to God on several occasions. Many of these moments He would escape the crowds that followed Him to hear His teaching and pray in private to the Father for renewed spiritual strength. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more