Life is an Adventure with God!

A while back I was reading the account of Abraham again in Genesis. God appeared to him in his homeland and told him to leave and go to a land that he would reveal to him when he got there. Think of setting out on a thousand mile journey with your household, livestock and belongings on wheeled carts not knowing where you were going! I couldn’t help but see his walk with God as one big adventure. Paul calls Abraham the man of faith and I realized that a life of faith really is a life of adventure.

Webster defines adventure as “an undertaking or experience that involves hazard and requires courage.” My mind went to Luke 9:22-23 where Jesus called disciples, “And he said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”

Wow, based on that passage, a life of following Jesus definitely involves hazard and requires courage. I guess that qualifies as an adventure!

But aren’t we fickle and half-hearted at times? For as soon as we encounter hazards and trials we cry out for deliverance, “God, get me out of this!” And we long for normalcy, “When are things going to settle down again?” We go to great lengths to make our lives easy so we can avoid hazards and trials. We say we want adventure, but when the trials come what we really want is amusement. The amusement park offers a temporary rush of adrenalin in a controlled environment. But true adventure is unpredictable with real consequences.

The courage it takes to ride a roller coaster is not the same kind of courage required to go the distance in a true adventure. If we stop to think about it, courage is only needed when fear must be overcome.

All of us at times find our adventure with God to be scary and unnerving. Here’s where it helps to have a firm and accurate picture of God whom we’re trusting. He is infinitely loving, kind and compassionate. Yet he is all-powerful and all-knowing. He knows no surprises and needs no contingency plans. He wants to be intimately involved in our lives and loves it when we trust him without reservation. He is worthy of our trust because he is trustworthy. Those who trust in him will never be disappointed.

There’s a great passage in Hebrews 12:12-13 that God provides for our encouragement as we trust him in the adventure he has for us. “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” The writer of Hebrews is quoting Isaiah 35:3 here. The context there finds Israel in its hour of greatest need when things truly looked hopeless. But the prophet encouraged Israel to trust in God and watch him work on their behalf—and he did! The point is, when things look most bleak on this life adventure with God, look to him and be strong in him.

© 2009 Rob Fischer