The Way of a Real Tale

"Yes, that's so," said Sam. "And we shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I supposed it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into." I wonder," replied Frodo. "But I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale."

Growing up, in high school, I would meet often with my youth pastor. It was, and still is, a very meaningful relationship to me. We'd talk about what was going on, what God was doing, how I was being a typical teenager, and he would passionately share the things God was teaching him.
I always felt inspired and deeply encouraged by those conversations.

Youth group was on Wednesday nights, and during the segment where my youth pastor would share, he'd often share of the same passions we talked about at coffee earlier that week. He had the same vibrant vigor as when he shared with me over hot cups of coffee.

Occasionally, he would also preach on Sundays in church. Lo and behold, he would share the same message pretty much we had heard at youth group!

It could be easy to assume that sharing the same message over and over to different audiences is an easier route. It would be much like the conference speaker who travels throughout the week intentionally giving the same themed message. That's what they have rehearsed to do.

Yet I realized it was perhaps a different case for my mentor and friend.

In getting to know him over the years, I learned that when God lead him to be passionate about something, he let that theme drive every possible area of his life.
He did not repeat himself out of laziness, but he was compelled to let the present chapter of his story drive the adventure of his life as a natural current and flow. These were the things God caused into his heart and soul, and it flooded every conversation, sermon, and thought.

I love that brief conversation between Sam and Frodo.

An adventure is not something we create or fabricate, its something we are already in. God is always speaking to us; he is always forming and laying out our tales for us.

I have shared much, in my previous posts, of the call we all have been presented with to shift our lenses to view our lives as full and saturated adventures. Yet let me tell you something else I have been learning.

Even if you do stubbornly do not shift your eyes onto the wondrous story-writing of our Creator, your messy adventure is still happening - you're just going to miss the beauty, whim, and life of it. Frodo and Sam are right. The greatest adventures, the ones with the most meaning, are not the ones you choose, they are the ones you fall into.

We can choose to accept that fact and then to let that permeate every ounce of our being.

Now that I am a youth pastor as well, it's easy sometimes to simply find a topic on God and the structure it in a way that is easily teachable to the students I serve. Now that is not a bad thing. Any truth about God is a good thing to be shared.

Yet God is already tuning my heart and soul, all of our hearts and souls, to a more magnificent song. Why don't we talk about that? Why don't we share honestly the fear that is upon us? Why don't we share the heavenly whispers around us? Why don't we share the mysterious and the encouraging and the heart-aching. God is speaking to us. If we seek to see our tales as they are, in light of the truth of the Gospel, then we, I, will have a more honest and captivating relationship to offer.

How I long to see that fill every small space of my life: not just in the ministry I serve, not just the church. EVERYWHERE.

Let's share the sort of tales we are finding ourselves falling into.

Adventure is Out There!

Adventure is out there!

The well known line from the endearing Pixar movie, UP. 

Adventure really is, in fact, out there. The movie UP, I think, paints a beautiful picture of what adventure is and should be.

It's not necessarily the sights or wonders a house suspended by balloons can bring that creates adventure. God knows my fear of heights will keep me from ever being involved with such a thing.

The adventure is driven by the blend of characters who experience the fear and wonder of traveling to unknown locations. These characters are all different in nature and whim, but they are all the same in that they need one another.

When I paint a picture of life with people in my head, it is orderly, colored in well, and clean looking. I like the idea of having people in my life who fit well with me, who are similar to me, and who have my best interest in mind (aka people who serve my own selfish need).

Yet a life of adventure driven by a community with others is far from being clean cut.

When I consider the best stories, the characters paint a beautiful picture. It is not a picture of perfection and order, though. Rather it is a picture that would resemble an abstract artist's flinging of the paint brush at a canvas from a distance. Lines would be all over the place, colors blending, a single image unclear.

When you involve real human beings in your life, you'll find no person fits your life the way you want them to. You'll find that their pain makes your life messy and weird, and you'll find your own pain making a mess of their lives. You'll also find your joys lighting up someone else's face, and another's joys filling holes in your heart you somehow couldn't fill yourself.

You'll find a truer adventure.

God created humans to live courageously and outrageously.

He created them to do it together. Somehow, I think, in the infinite grace and knowledge of our Creator, it was made intentional that humans interacting with each other would create a natural chaos and disorder.

No law, will, or self help book can make relationships happen perfectly.

Adventure is not a seeking of the perfect. It is a seeking of that which is beyond our selves ending with a God who died on a cross (outrageously). And guess what? When you invite that one friend to coffee and ask them how their life is, you have taken the plunge into the world that does not revolve around you.

There must be more than my own anxieties, fears, and desires.

There is. It lies in every person that lives with me, around me, and as far away from me as possible.

Invite people into your life. Let them know you and find adventure in you. Even more, discover others and the adventure they have to offer.

Bring Yosemite Home.