OUR GREATEST ADVENTURE

Life Like No Other

We all love a good adventure movie like the Indiana Jones series. When the movie starts you never quite know where it will take you. A good movie will keep you captivated and on the edge of your seat. It will have emotional highs and lows and some will leave you breathless. Life is like that, too. I've been taking time to think this week and refocus myself on this journey. I get side-tracked so easily and find myself wandering off the story line. I used to believe that I was just failing, but now I've come to realize that these are teaching moments. The more we are in tune to the Holy Spirit the more we realize just how off the track we have gone. He won't let us wander too far. When this happens we get to chose, refocus or continue wandering aimlessly.

I was thinking the other day about how my life lacked adventure. I have a pretty boring life with the occasional situation that causes panic or unrest, usually of my own doing. Is this how life is supposed to be? I'm not a wild child by any means, but there is something inside of me that wants a little adventure. I'm not talking about space travel or sailing on a ship in the open ocean. While those are adventurous things for sure, my heart longs for a meaningful adventure, something with lasting impact.

As I was pondering this God spoke to me and reminded me that life is one big adventure when you are following Him and doing what He has designed for you. Each day is different and part of a greater mankind adventure. When I began writing this blog it stirred that longing because it was something new I had never done before. It took me out of my comfort zone to share life's ups and downs with the entire world. Yes I know the numbers of people who are reading this are minimal, but it is on the world wide web where anyone could read it. I used to care what people thought about my free spirit because so many have tried to box me up! Now I don't care at all! I need to be the girl God created!

I was reminded of a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, The Great Adventure. Near the beginning of the song he writes "I opened up the Bible and I read about you and me. Said we'd all been prisoners and God's grace had set us all free. Somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt. I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!" This is what it is like when you stop leading your own life and you start doing what God has called you to do. The adventure begins.

Those of us who long for excitement, or a greater life, find fulfillment when we submit to God's plan and do things his way. I've spent years looking for that adventure only to realize that it was inside of me all along and I never knew it. I've known Jesus since I was 10. That's 48 years. I've known about him all of my life. One of the dangers of being raised in a Christian home is that commonplace feeling of knowing who God is and what Jesus did and it not being such a great "lightning bolt moment". When you are raised knowing God, your life is different from those who don't know God. It isn't better. In some ways they have the advantage of that "come to Jesus" moment. While I definitely remember the day I came to Jesus, I was an obedient daughter and still a child so there wasn't a massive change in who I was.

I can see this difference between my friend and I. She has a completely different life story coming to Jesus later in her life. Her "come to Jesus" moment was a huge turning point that literally took her from dark into light. I've always been surrounded by the light. Even when I was in low places, I always knew God was never going to leave me or forsake me. He was there to stay. That is the beauty of our individual Adventures. They are not all going to be the same. They will all be unique to who God designed us to be and where that Journey was designed to take us. We all have one thing in common - Jesus.

The chorus of this song is "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 a life like no other, this is the great adventure!" What a visual! We have a trail to blaze! We are following the same leader but taking different parallel journeys into the glorious unknown! Life like no other - the GREAT adventure!

Imagine Jesus the pilot of a hot air balloon. He smiles as we soar higher and higher above the clouds. The things of this world get so small while the horizon grows and we can see farther than we have ever seen before. We get a tingling feeling in our spine as we witness life from the perspective of the creator! It is so BIG with so much adventure. Which way will He take us? He points to the East where the sun is rising on a new day! Imagine Jesus saying "Let's Go!" There is no fear on this ride. The basket isn't big enough. There is just wonder and amazement and complete trust in the pilot. The adventure calls for unrestrained faith. Your brightly colored balloon is the way forward through the storms into the glorious unknown safe and secure with the one who commands the winds, rain, and sun.

The Bible is filled with stories of adventure. Ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things because God was with them. Imagine Jesus being with Moses from the beginning to the end of that Life's Journey! What was it like for Moses to lift his hands and the seas part before him? Imagine Jesus with Joshua at the battle of Jericho, and the walls tumbled to the ground from a trumpet blast. Imagine Jesus with the disciples as they healed people in his name after he was ascended. The adventure is beyond your wildest dreams, as long as you follow the leader.

Saddle Up! Let's ride with Jesus and live our GREATEST ADVENTURE! I've uploaded the song on the praise page. If you need a pick me up for your day, have a listen. Let it be the soundtrack for today and every day! With a loud YAHOOOOOO! It is off we go!

Exodus 14:21-28

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.