Adventure is Essential

Complacency is the enemy of mankind. We were meant to be adventurers, conquering the unknown! What happens when we stop progressing? Have you become dissatisfied with living a dull life yet?

I have a quote I love from one of my favorite preachers – “When David said no to a war he was born for, he faced a conflict he had no grace for.” We were born for adventure, and when we choose a life of complacency, we step out of the rhythm of what makes us who we are.

If you’ve gown up in church, you’ve probably heard the story of King David sleeping with his friends wife. If not, let me catch you up. David was once king of God’s people in the Old Testament before Jesus. It says in the Bible, that “during the time when kings went to war, David stayed home.” When he said no to his calling, he fell into sin. He noticed his friend’s wife, Bathsheba, bathing on her roof. Take note that her husband was off to war when David should’ve been leading him and his people. King David was not where he was supposed to be, therefore he had no grace to sustain where he was. He made arrangements to sleep with her and the story goes downhill from there. Of course, David repents and God restores him, but the main point of this story that we can learn from, is that we all have a seed of adventure in our hearts that needs to be watered and stewarded well. If left neglected, we are susceptible to a life of complacency, always reacting to what’s coming at us.

So how do we steward adventure? That’s the big question that needs to be asked. I would first suggest that we need to discover why we’re alive. For myself, I have discovered my life’s calling is to be loved by God and then reciprocate that love back to Him. I believe I was born to influence the nations for Jesus Christ. I have many other passions as well, such as fly fishing, traveling, construction, and business, but even in those passions it is my goal to be loved by God and then give it back to Him.

After college and a couple of internships, I launched 420 Ministries with my best friend. We had no idea what we were doing except for the fact that we had a desire to just GO and share the Gospel. We had read stories about a woman named Heidi Baker who asked God for the nation of Mozambique and He gave it to her. She’s now responsible for overseeing over 2,000 churches. If she could ask God for a nation, why couldn’t we ask Him for nations? Within two weeks we were connected to India. We booked flights, signed 501(c)3 documents, put a board together and took off for India. We were going to teach 35 house church leaders and felt extremely inadequate for the job. Five years later and long story short, there are over 450 house churches in India now, and we have communities in Pakistan and Ireland that we pour into as well as our community at home in Indianapolis. God has completely blown us away all because we said YES to something we were born for. We’ve gotten to share the Gospel in the second largest mosque in the world and meet amazing modern day Paul’s!

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What does your yes look like? What were you born for? Do you have a dream in your heart to impact society through kingdom business? Through building amazing things for others to enjoy? Through empowering men or women in personal growth? Whatever it may be, as long as you put it on the backburner, you’ll never see the fulfillment of what you were born for. We all start somewhere. For me it was taking one little step at a time until I found myself in the Middle East watching over 70 people give their lives to Jesus at once. I didn’t start there though. I had to say yes first and steward that seed of adventure.

Now I’m stewarding a seed of adventure in my heart for business ventures. I’ve gotten to go remodel a cabin in Montana, and continue to grow in the skills necessary to see my dreams come to fruition in this area.

With all that said, where should you start today? I would suggest that we cannot know what we were born for until we know the One who created us. All adventure is truly found in him. What is one step you can take this week to identify why you were born and what you can do to steward that seed in your heart? We can we learn from David and instead of saying no to why we were born, continue to say yes and be where you need to be today to grow. Remember, adventure is essential. We either say yes or no. Which will you choose?

Challenge:

1. What were you born for? To help identify this, write down 3 things that you heart longs to see in this life.
2. What areas of your life are you complacent?
3. What small steps can you take this month to step out of complacency and into stewarding the things your passionate about?