stitches

Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure.  It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary.  He simply invites us.  God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made.  And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together.”

~ Bob Goff, Love Does

There is a tree standing by a creek in the middle of one of the most magical places on Earth, Windy Gap.  One of those trees whose branches beckon to each child who walks by, crying out to be climbed.  I use to walk by the tree growing up, stare at its branches and wonder what it felt like to sit at the top.  I think too often I live my life in the same way… looking at an adventure and simply wondering what it might hold…

I just finished reading a book everyone else in my life seemed to finish as well.  Even my neighbor yelled, “Love Does, great book!” as I was reading on my back porch.  Bob Goff fills his chapters with story after story of fascinating, whimsical adventures.  And as I read each one, I found myself sitting in awe… not because of the amazing trips and encounters Bob has been a part of, but in awe of the way he holds life as an adventure.  I have been thinking a lot lately about adventure.  A lot of times we as Christians refer to our union with the Creator as a “walk with God”, and honestly the phrase serves as a beautiful image of us walking alongside Jesus.  But I wonder how our life would change if we sat out on an “adventure with God” instead of a walk.  An adventure like Peter has the night Jesus walks out to the middle of lake to meet his friends.  As Peter challenges the “ghost” on the water to prove himself, the voice calls back, “Come”, and Peter steps out into one of the greatest adventures recorded in human history.  Maybe for a brief moment, a few steps or a hundred yards, Peter experiences life beyond what he could ever imagine.  Stepping off the boat I’m sure was frightening, exhilarating, confusing and more… and lately I have been wondering if all adventure feels that way. 

Too often I am afraid to step into the adventure God longs to have with me.  The fear of sinking, the fear of being hurt, and the fear of failing hold me back.  But what I am discovering, slowly, that life at its fullest, an adventure filled life is scary and joyful and painful and confusing and good.  To steal a classic scene from the Chronicles of Narnia-  Is it safe? No.  Is it good? I am beginning to believe so…

No one has taught me more about the adventure of life with God than my sister, Lindsay.  Lindsay use to climb the tree sitting by the creek (which made her younger brother long to even more).   One day she fell.  The branches were not so kind on the way down and the drop sent her to the emergency room for a set of stitches on her eye.  Those stitches kept me away from the tree I so badly wanted to climb, those stitches kept me wondering.  Lindsay is now a mom of 3 boys- Campbell, Graham and little Huck.  Campbell and Graham are twins who live a life of adventure, like their mom, and they have the stitches to prove it.  They climb trees, run through fields and swim in the cold ocean.  The ER doctors know them by name and their GiGi (our mom) cringes each time they come home in a cast or with a new set of stitches… But at 5 years old they are beginning to understand how God created them to live in an adventure with Him, to live a life full of joy, heartache, surprises, fun, pain, laughter and more… Already they see God as the One who makes the adventure possible… Already they realize real life, life at its fullest, a life of adventure comes with some stitches. 

I no longer want to simply wonder… I want to jump into the life of adventure the Creator of the Universe is calling me into… and I am realizing, life like this comes with some stitches.