Thrills, Romance & Adventure

My pastor once said, “If you walk with the Lord, you will have thrills, romance and adventure—and none of those are safe.” I have been thinking a lot about that lately, mainly because our church is in a transition period right now and I am craving a little bit of normalcy. I feel as if I’ve gone through enough transition in my life, and I certainly do not want more. However, God seems to think otherwise, and I have to be ok with that, or I’m really not much of a disciple, now am I?

So, if I’m gonna write about thrills, romance and adventure, I suppose I’d better start or I’ll be here all day. Let’s start with thrills. The Oxford Dictionary defines “thrill” as a sudden feeling of excitement and pleasure. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to take us to Chilhowee Park on Sunday afternoon after church, an amusement park of a dubious nature. There was a roller-coaster ride called, oddly enough, The Mad Mouse. I have no idea just how mad a mouse can get, but evidently pretty doggone mad because that roller coaster terrified me. When I finally got up enough courage to actually ride the thing, the excitement and sheer exhilaration was overwhelming. I loved that ride for the sheer joy of anticipating the tilted curve at the corner when it felt like we were literally being lifted off the track and going airborn. As I grew up, however, the thrill of The Mad Mouse…well, it kinda wore off. One day the adult me looked at that pathetic ride and I thought to myself, “THIS was the thing I was so afraid of? THIS was the thing that was so exciting, so exhilarating?” It seemed so small looking at it as adult, but when I was a kid…Wow! I loved it. Isn’t it like that with our walk with Jesus, though? When we are a new Christian, we are hungry for God’s Word. We crave spending time with Him, because every moment with Him is thrilling! We are voracious consumers of His Presence. And we long for more. As life happens, though, and we settle into our new life with Jesus, some of the new kinda wears off. We become content. We become complacent. We become, God forbid, borning. We learn we can live without the thrill. But the question is this: Why would we want to?? Thrills are fun! Thrills are exciting and we derive a great deal of pleasure from them. Why would we give that up? The answer is, of course, we shouldn’t. We should actively seek them! I am reminded of the story of David and Goliath. There was nothing safe about David confronting Goliath on the battlefield. In fact, it seems to our human eyes, it was downright stupid. Yet, look at what a great victory that was! So great, in fact, that we’re still reading about it and dissecting it, many thousands of years later. Our own lives are no less thrilling. We may not face a physical giant, but we have our own giants. And the thrill of seeing them defeated through the power of Jesus Christ should never grow old. The thrill of answered prayer never fails to send a chill up our collective spines. The excitement of attending a special fellowship should never disappoint because we are walking with the Maker and Creator of the Universe. How much more thrilling can that be??

I am gonna skip over romance for now and take that one last. Let’s move right on into “adventure: When I was a kid, there was a small wooded area behind our house. My sister and I used play there often. It was heavily explored so there was no danger, but to my younger self, it was an enchanted forest. I was certain I was gonna encounter a fairy house, or perhaps a goblin den around the next corner. I was sure Robin Hood or Maid Marianne was locked there, prisoners of time, to come out and greet us. I was certain a wicked witch lived there and was ready to shove us into an oven and bake us like so many cookies for lunch. I was a rather imaginative child, as you can see. As a child, this was a close as my parents let me come to having an actual adventure, but gosh darn it, I made the most of it.

When God told Abraham “Leave your country and go to a place I will show you,” Abraham left, taking his family with him. God led him into a vast and strange land, but along the way, God also asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham did not hesitate, and while I admire his loyalty, as a parent, I silently scream “have you lost your mind?” This, to me at least, is one of the greatest adventures in the Bible. You see, the country Abraham came from had child sacrifice. Abraham must have been used to seeing such things at the temple of Molech. You would think he had no reason to believe God wouldn’t require the same of him. But, somehow, along the way, in all the adventures and excitement of the journey, Abraham got to know God—he learned God’s character, His nature. He knew Jehovah God was unlike any other god he’d encountered in his home town. He knew that what God required wasn’t sacrifice. It was obedience. And he spoke these words, “God will provide a sacrifice.” Imagine the faith it took to make that statement. And God did indeed provide a sacrifice (a ram), and the rest is history. Abraham proved that we can trust God with our adventures.

When we’re young, we are bold, daring, ready to “take the city for Christ.” Then we mature, we grow up, and our feelings shift. We no longer crave the adventure. We are content to sit in our armchairs and watch others take the missionary journey, or do the street ministry. We let others fight the battle for us, content in our warm, cozy homes. In other words, no adventures today. To quote Peter Pan, “To die would be an awfully big adventure.” But Peter Pan eventually grew up, and so did we. The Mad Mouse is just a distant memory, and a vague one at that. I do find myself, though, longing for a bit of adventure. I am no longer content to sit on the sidelines. I want to be in the game. Put me in, Coach.

Now let’s get to romance, which is arguably the most unsafe one of all, as you can’t have romance without love. We romance what we love. So, if you can endure it, here’s another story from my childhood…When I was in junior high, I had a massive crush on this boy who rode my school bus. I didn’t know him personally, but I was certain we were destined to be together. Or at least eat lunch together and pass notes in class, maybe even hold hands. My young heart would beat madly every time I passed him in the hall. I was smitten. Anyway, I couldn’t get up the courage to talk to him. I would chicken out at the last minute. One day, at the egging on of my girlfriends, I mustered up the courage, walked over and said, “Hi,” and some other mindless drivel I can’t even recall, thank the good Lord. I will never forget what he said to me. “Go away. You are the ugliest girl in the world.” I can still hear the distain and the sneer in his voice as he spoke to me, even now. I was crushed, but that’s kind of a part of falling in love for the first time. The problem was I wasn’t just crushed at the moment—for YEARS I truly believed I was the ugliest girl in the world. I made decisions based on that. I acted that out, because I could still hear that voice in my head.

I am many years older now, and if that happened to me today, I would just laugh and say, “First of all, I’m no longer a girl, and secondly, that’s just silly. Do you KNOW every girl in the world?” Once I grew up and realized the difference between real love and puppy love, it was easier to shut down the negative self talk, but for a long time, love was tinted with strains of unacceptance, unworthiness, ugliness. That’s a very unhealthy way to begin (or end for that matter) a relationship. As I matured, I realized that the only person who would never disappoint me was Jesus. He will never think I’m ugly. He will never leave us. He will never tell us to go away. We are always welcomed in His arms. Romance with Jesus is abundantly SAFE. It’s only human love that is unsafe, but yet, we aren’t exempt from loving others. In fact, we’re commanded to do so.

The most heart wrenching feeling in the world is love unrequited. It literally stops our breath and we think we are gonna die. Yet, we don’t die. We go right on living day after day, till one day we realize the pain isn’t as bad as it once was. And one day, we heal. Yet with God, there is no healing process from rejection. There is no pain in His love. There is no pushing us away when long to draw near. There is only His precious voice whispering, “Come closer, dear one.” He is our all consuming love, our infinite romance, our comfort, our everything.

This has been long, but if you’ve hung with me until the end, thank you. It seems I had a lot to say today. I supposed to sum this all up I’d say this: Don’t get too comfortable with where you are, don’t let your excitement wane, and don’t let your love grow cold. God provides all us humans with all we could ever want or need. We just have to trust and reach out and take it with both hands, and don’t look back. Abraham trusted Him with that which he held most dear—his son, Isaac. David trusted him to guide that stone to hit Goliath dead center in the forehead. And Jesus trusted His Father enough to die for us. I’ll take that any day.

God bless you! Maranatha!