C.S. Lewis—from a letter to Arthur Greeves, 20 December 1943
Adventure.
I throw that word around alot.
Okay, spell check. A lot.
In fact, everyone's jumping on the train. In this God-deprived world, we've discovered that working a 9-5 job, getting married and living in a whitewashed, vinyl-clad home in suburbia may not be the ticket to fulfillment for every single person.
What a shock.
So we've begun this obsession with adventure, a sometimes reckless pursuit of new and exciting experiences. Burn down the vinyl house, and live in a tepee. Quit your job and go trek through the Yukon wilderness. Forget marriage, who needs ties like those?
This is a growing culture, and quite honestly, one I've grown to be a part of. There's something about standing next to an alpine lake at night, or stretching my comfort zone learning a new dance step that teaches me something about myself and broadens my world.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for consistency. I'm also a fan of hard work, and commitment. I just haven't bought into this "American gospel" being preached.
But recently, my view of adventure has been broadened.
We've all been there, late for work, or school, or church, and whomp!! Flumpflumpflumpflump...and you know your tire has just shuffled off its mortal coil. Possibly the most vulnerable component of our vehicles always seems to let us down at the worst time. And then there's the whole mess of getting out that spare tire, which is always in some grimy, neck-cramp-inducing location. It's not just tires though. It's an alarm clock that malfunctions, a dog that runs away, or dare I say it...the internet goes down.
Unpleasentries.
Inconveniences.
And they always seem to happen when we least have the patience for them.
But maybe that's the point. Things don't happen spontaneously, they have an order and a reason. God directs his symphony on the canvas of our lives, each note an event, perfectly chosen to nudge us in the right direction. One of Webster's definitions of adventure is: "a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome." For us, that's what life is. We don't know what every decision will lead to and we can't always predict when entropy will throw a monkey wrench into our operations, but we DO know that we can trust that they're for our best interest. That's why I like to re-brand them, and call them adventures. Somehow, labeling something as an "adventure" helps me to begin to embrace life's everyday faux pas, and learn to take them in stride.
The adventures that unpleasentries bring our way do us a favor by knocking us out of our comfort zone and shaking us up a bit. So here's to tomorrow's adventures: the frozen water pipes, the botched haircut and the flu, and to our flexibility allowing us to discover God's heart.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for consistency. I'm also a fan of hard work, and commitment. I just haven't bought into this "American gospel" being preached.
But recently, my view of adventure has been broadened.
We've all been there, late for work, or school, or church, and whomp!! Flumpflumpflumpflump...and you know your tire has just shuffled off its mortal coil. Possibly the most vulnerable component of our vehicles always seems to let us down at the worst time. And then there's the whole mess of getting out that spare tire, which is always in some grimy, neck-cramp-inducing location. It's not just tires though. It's an alarm clock that malfunctions, a dog that runs away, or dare I say it...the internet goes down.
Unpleasentries.
Inconveniences.
And they always seem to happen when we least have the patience for them.
But maybe that's the point. Things don't happen spontaneously, they have an order and a reason. God directs his symphony on the canvas of our lives, each note an event, perfectly chosen to nudge us in the right direction. One of Webster's definitions of adventure is: "a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome." For us, that's what life is. We don't know what every decision will lead to and we can't always predict when entropy will throw a monkey wrench into our operations, but we DO know that we can trust that they're for our best interest. That's why I like to re-brand them, and call them adventures. Somehow, labeling something as an "adventure" helps me to begin to embrace life's everyday faux pas, and learn to take them in stride.
The adventures that unpleasentries bring our way do us a favor by knocking us out of our comfort zone and shaking us up a bit. So here's to tomorrow's adventures: the frozen water pipes, the botched haircut and the flu, and to our flexibility allowing us to discover God's heart.
Sometimes our adventures look less like:
...and more like:
Sometimes the little "adventures" are the most memorable ones. You're right, all of life is an adventure, and that's a wonderful (even if at times difficult) perspective to have.
ReplyDelete--Jess