“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3 NIV.
Popular actor and author, Matthew McConaughey, writes in his book Greenlights, “It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about accepting the challenge.”
While some people thrive on challenges, many do not. Not everyone sees themselves as great adventurers in real life, though we all may sometimes fantasize about it while bingeing on Netflix and choking down Pringles. No shame. I get it. Not everyone is going to set new records for climbing glaciers in the Antarctic or for kayaking over giant waterfalls in the Amazon. Most of us just want to order from Amazon, not visit it. And that’s okay, except for one thing—God created us for more than the couch.
Life is challenging. For those afflicted with sickness and debilitating disease, simply breathing can be a tremendous struggle. Millions, if not billions, of our fellow humans are hoping just to eat anything today, fighting against the poverty they were born into at no fault of their own. The aged and disenfranchised in our inner cities suffer countless traumas and indignities with no help from family or loved ones. Life is hard.
We make jokes about first world problems when our cell phones don’t work or the internet goes down for a few hours. We’re lulled into passivity and even into what we could call unconsciousness by the conveniences we pay dearly for, never stopping to realize that they’re neutering the powerful soul of adventure that God breathed into us. Did we forget that it’s His very life-breath in us? But keep your eyes open. Adventure is afoot.