Practice 6: Intentional Adventure
Ok so some just put the booklet down at the sound of adventure for fear of anything that’s not structured, while others just finally got interested. The idea is this: God would never have created a world like ours—full of cliffs and ice cream and sunsets and animals—and said “Now just do what I tell you and you’ll be safe!” But we’ve boxed God into a picture of a life preserver.
Just take a second to look around. Look outside. Think back to the most exciting, fun thing that has ever happened to you. God designed you with an identity that longs for intentional adventure. Look at the picture of Paul’s life in Acts 16. It reads like the itinerary of someone who can never stay still.
Don’t get me wrong, if God built you with a know-where-I’m-going kind of personality, he’s not defining your identity to be the opposite. But in all of us is a desire—for some great and for some small—to feel alive. To know that I can live through it. The enemy, though, has reached into our past and drug out all the hurtful times to try to convince us that we cannot make it. We often dismiss it as wisdom when in actuality the God of order finds order in adventure.
By it’s very nature, adventure is free-falling from one step to the next. The question is really in the identity of God—do you trust that he is who he says and can do what he says he can? The only way to know is to make a decision to follow. Say no and avoid the safe path. Start a Bible study. Have that conversation with the person you don’t know. Risk.
God risked his son for us—took the chance that the payment that was made would be accepted by humanity. Why not follow the same path? Why no offer the same sacrifice and say “Not my will (to be comfortable in my own kingdom), but yours be done”?
What would be the riskiest decision for you right now? Now analyze your motives. What is selfish and from you, and what is spurring you to adventure? God did not design a boring life.
Ok so some just put the booklet down at the sound of adventure for fear of anything that’s not structured, while others just finally got interested. The idea is this: God would never have created a world like ours—full of cliffs and ice cream and sunsets and animals—and said “Now just do what I tell you and you’ll be safe!” But we’ve boxed God into a picture of a life preserver.
Just take a second to look around. Look outside. Think back to the most exciting, fun thing that has ever happened to you. God designed you with an identity that longs for intentional adventure. Look at the picture of Paul’s life in Acts 16. It reads like the itinerary of someone who can never stay still.
Don’t get me wrong, if God built you with a know-where-I’m-going kind of personality, he’s not defining your identity to be the opposite. But in all of us is a desire—for some great and for some small—to feel alive. To know that I can live through it. The enemy, though, has reached into our past and drug out all the hurtful times to try to convince us that we cannot make it. We often dismiss it as wisdom when in actuality the God of order finds order in adventure.
By it’s very nature, adventure is free-falling from one step to the next. The question is really in the identity of God—do you trust that he is who he says and can do what he says he can? The only way to know is to make a decision to follow. Say no and avoid the safe path. Start a Bible study. Have that conversation with the person you don’t know. Risk.
God risked his son for us—took the chance that the payment that was made would be accepted by humanity. Why not follow the same path? Why no offer the same sacrifice and say “Not my will (to be comfortable in my own kingdom), but yours be done”?
What would be the riskiest decision for you right now? Now analyze your motives. What is selfish and from you, and what is spurring you to adventure? God did not design a boring life.
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