Perhaps I should make an appointment with Matt Foley?
I was pondering, over the last couple of days, what I could do to make my life more exciting and eventful. A lot of ideas came to mind; I could do a nearby hike, buy a skateboard and ride it around, start a band with some metalheads from my school, become a homeless person for a while, get into kickboxing, play music on the street corner for money... the full list is much longer. But I realized something today.
I was sitting in the Stevens Pass lodge, perturbed by the fact that I was too sick to snowboard, reading the latest Donald Miller book. I kept shutting the book every ten minutes or so, to think about my life. Or more specifically, to analyze it. I will go wherever God asks me to, but he hasn't asked me to do anything very extraordinary or adventurous -- even though, on the one hand, everything God asks me to do is extraordinary and adventurous. But I think you know what I mean.
And then it hit me.
I got to a part in the book where Miller is relating stories, as in books and movies, to our own lives. He said:
"Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn't all that comfortable. And even if they secretly want for something better"
I was crestfallen when I read this. I hate it when this happens to me, when I get so into the 'swing of things' that I don't stop to consider what I am writing in this book called Nate Fifield. I am ready to jump off the cliff into deep unknown waters, and I am an arrow, pulled back a ways, so ready to be released into the world. I want to go everywhere. But more importantly, I'm ready for the more radical, daring, uncanny, unknown adventures that God has in store for me, because I don't want to be comfortable anymore.
I know what you mean about wanting to be involved in adventure. But I think if I could see my every, ordinary (sometimes boring) life from God's point of view (Kingdom goggles), I am pretty sure it would look like a man who is mostly oblivious of the fact the he's in the middle of a huge battle. Perhaps it would be like Inspector Cluso in Saving Private Ryan. All this to say that there might be more spiritual adventure than you realize going on at this very moment in your life. I bet we often fail to recognize the real adventure in our lives because it takes a form we don't find exciting. I think that's why I love movies so much, I always seem to find elements of my life in the struggles of characters in stories.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're probably right. I think what I meant to say is I want adventure that is appealing to me.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. Me too. Here's to adventure that doesn't suck; that challenges in ways I don't mind be stretched and journeys that lead to better places. But, I know that when God presents you with real life adventure, you will respond with all your energies, even if it feels horrible.
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