Adventure is far afield in the United States. Our structures and our technologies have made life so very predictable that we have decided to seek satiation for our curiosity through digitized, proxy-life. My generation and the generations both before and after mine have chosen the most boring existence imaginable. What is so boring about it? Look in the mirror, and tell me. God does not call us to tread-water in a debt pool until our good years and ingenuity are spent. This is where our dissatisfaction comes from.
I think we are between two extremely powerful forces in our little world. The first and older of these two forces is God, who calls us to love Him above all else, to love our neighbors as ourselves and out of love for those neighbors to proclaim our love for Him to all people everywhere. The second and far younger force is fear; fear of death, fear of loss, fear of failure. Silly to fear these things, all of which are guaranteed to us at birth. What is not guaranteed is how we respond to His calling.
My father’s latest adventure has taken him deep inside of our hometown of Sumner. He has decided to be sore, out of breath, and sweaty. He has decided to become a man who walks for want of a better life for as long as he has life. He has chosen to face fear, answer God’s call, and pick a life more suited to the progeny of our adventurous ancestors. Had every European feared the sea, toil, and uncertainty, my father would be taking his walks around one of the British Isles, but God called his ancestors here, and here he is.
albaniacalling 