Life Is An Adventure

So, my thirteen-year-old daughter Rachel and I were sitting on the couch watching X Files.  It was one of my favorite shows as a teenager, and apparently it is one of hers also.  In the beginning, Mulder and Scully are told about a crime in Oregon. They are in DC, and have a private plane waiting for them and fly to Oregon, and then will take a helicopter ride to a volcano area in order to solve the crime.

Rachel, sitting next to me, said "Wouldn’t that be cool - to start off one place during the day and be somewhere else completely different by that afternoon? It would be so much fun!”.

I paused the show and we talked about it. Honestly, that will be our life soon.  In six months we will leave everything comfortable and wonderful that we know for adventure and uncertainty.

Now, I think I should explain something.  There are people out there, like Rachel, who crave adventure.  For them, the thought of going into the jungle with just what is on your back is exciting.

For me, not so much. If you poll the people I grew up with, the consensus would probably be, "he liked movies."

Growing up, I wanted to have a home, a beautiful wife, wonderful kids, great church, and a job I liked.   Ding, Ding, Ding…I am there! And, my prize? To leave it all for the Lord.

I don't mean to sound like I don’t want to go.  But I'm going mostly because I gave my life to Christ to do what he wanted.  He has always given me the choice: press in, our stay where you are?  And, my reply for the most part, was to press in, because I do not want to marginalized.  What do I mean? Marginalized means to not reach your full potential, to get up to heaven, and to find out you could have done more.

Yikes!

It is just like the final scene in Schindler’s List, when Schindler finds himself asking, "How many more could I have saved?  This gold button could have saved 3 more..."

So, I am going on an adventure.  Not by my own temperament, but because the Lord said, "Go."  I will be moving to a country that I do not speak the language of.  To get there I have to drive through Mexico. (Ditto about not knowing the language.)

The school I will be working with has satellite locations around the country. Some of them are pretty remote and hard to get to. It may be one of my jobs to go into these remote areas and make sure the schools are operating correctly. By myself. (Hopefully I will have learned the language by then.)

There is a missionary who works in the mountains helping get clean water to villages. It has been suggested that I might be going up there and helping for a week or two at a time. My guess is they do not have hotels up there..

That is just the beginning of what could happen. Yet, I could not be more excited.  I am going to live the life on the road few choose.  I am going to see foreign people, and ancient ruins, and active volcanoes, and different cultures.  And the best part: it is all for Christ.  It's not a vacation, or something I would have chosen on my own, but it is the greatest calling there was and ever will be.

We will face adversity. We will feel doubt, joy, fear, courage, sadness, rejoicing. And, it will all be worth it, because at the end, I will hear, "You have been a good and faithful servant.”

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