The Daily Adventure

I have a friend who says, “Today is perfect,” and another who says, “It’s the best day of my life.” They say this about every day…

Every day can be an adventure, especially if we’re living from the heart. How much risk are we willing to live in? How much uncertainty? Can we let go of control? How much? We must walk out these kinds of questions with God as we learn to trust. By trusting and risking, we aren’t guaranteed a reward of everything going smoothly. Life is messy, and we have much to learn.

Living from our hearts, the lifestyle of risk, means opening ourselves up to increased amounts of pleasure and pain. As the potential for pleasure increases, so does the potential for pain. Things can get messy.

We may taste the thrill of victory if we’re willing to risk suffering the agony of defeat. Nobody likes agony, but what’s better? To ache now and then, or to be bored all the time? To feel something-- anything-- or to be numb? If we never risk standing up to bat, we’ll never feel the pain of striking out, but we’ll also never feel the pleasure of hitting the ball and getting on base-- or perhaps even hitting a home run!

We learn by trying, by moving, by engaging-- by taking a swing. We learn by doing it, by practice and experiment. When we try, we learn, and we get better at life. Pressing through the resistance of fear, we grow stronger, and we see better.

As we see, we move. That is, what and how we see determines what we do. As we move purposefully, we learn. As we learn, we see better. As we see better, we make better moves. As we move better, life gets better.

Daily we are presented with opportunities to choose the adventure or play it safe. There’s a kind of reckless abandonment to Life that can become addicting. Tasting this kind of life pulls us in deeper. We’re being pulled into a lifestyle.

If we find ourselves stuck in the swamps of boredom, we can start to break out by trying something new and taking a few risks. These can be small, but they will stimulate our hearts towards Life. As we continue pressing in, we can develop a momentum that will start to carry us deeper and deeper into more abundant living.

Our ability to love ourselves will largely determine our ability to persevere. Nobody else knows what it’s like to be in our shoes. Comparing ourselves with others is calling for deception, and it sets us up for discouragement. We know when something feels risky to us personally, and we know when we took the risk and went for it. What feels extremely risky for one person may feel easy to another. A major victory for us may not even be a challenge for them. We must be patient and kind with ourselves, believing and hoping all things, thinking the best.

Celebrate small victories. Don’t live in regret over missed opportunities or seemingly failed attempts. Our victories define us in Christ. The rest is forgotten.

Ultimately, the adventure is about trusting God. And we can rest in the knowledge that its not so much about the outcomes along the way as it is about enjoying the journey of walking with Him.

Today is perfect because when we’re living from our hearts, out of who we most truly are, we are actually already walking in our dreams (in some form/measure). We’re not waiting to walk in our destiny. We’re not waiting for the great adventure to begin-- for life to really start. We are living it today, participating in its progressive unfolding. Like the nature of the Kingdom in the earth, which is both here and continuously coming more, so it is with our dreams. They are here. We are in them now, and they are coming more into fulfillment.

The desire for “more” will likely pull us into challenges that we don’t feel ready for. The meaning of success and failure can become unclear, perhaps even irrelevant. We simply embrace the journey today, appreciating the moments we have-- continually unfolding with Opportunity. Today is perfect-- the best day of our lives.