At it again

It has been less than a week since we got back from our men's backpack, and I find myself doing two things: sleeping from exhaustion, and dreaming about the next big thing. So either I am hopelessly addicted to backpacking, or there is a lesson here. I know the first is true. I think the second is as well.

Ever since I was a kid, I have looked forward to and lived great adventures. It has been part of who I am today and as long as I can remember. Lately I joined Facebook, and have been able to reconnect with kids from my youth group when I was a youth pastor. Only they aren't kids any more. In fact, they are older now than I was when I was their YM. That's scary! It seems that a few that I have chatted with seem to think that I impacted their lives in a positive way. When I look back, all I can see is dumb ass. But then, God did use Balaam's donkey......

I don't know if I taught them anything, but they seemed to have caught something from me. One of them parachutes. Another rides motorcycles. Another backpacks and camps. If they got nothing else from me, they got the adventure bug.

And I think that is my point. Life ain't life if there ain't any adventure. You can pass the time doing whatever job for whatever pay. That isn't life. You can buy all kinds of things and do all kinds of activities, and that isn't life either. Bringing adventure back to your life is simply throwing yourself into life without a reserve chute. It is fully embracing both the good and the bad that comes at you. Adventure is ultimately doing that with God - boldly walking with Him, regardless of the cost. I think some of those kids (middle aged adults now) learned that. And although I wasn't even close to a good YM, they seem to have grabbed the "grab life by the horns" theme, and are living it out. I see them living it out with their spouses, with their kids, with their churches. How cool to have somehow ignited a fire that still burns on some 20 years later. God really is good, isn't He.

What stikes me the most is that they are still walking with God, in varying degrees of struggle. I love that they are so honest. One told me she was just plain bored. I like that - the gut level vulnerability, the unashamed acknowledgement of truth. They are real - and isn't that the heart of the adventure; not having it all together, but hiking all the journey with heart full honest with God?