The Heart Of Adventure

               “We’ve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore.
                     We always find things we’ve never seen before.
                         That’s why everyday we’re back for more.”
                               –The Backyardigans themes song

The Backyardigans is a children’s TV show about five animal pals who go on adventures in their backyard. These animals have a way of viewing the world in a way, I think, embodies a characteristic of the Lord: childlike adventure.

The typical definition of adventure is to engage in hazardous and exciting activity but I actually think adventure is a mindset. Adventure can indeed be travel and going to fun places, take the World Race for example. I think however, adventure is more about the exploration of the unknown than it is actually going anywhere. For me, yoga is an intentional exploration in my mind, body, and spirit. Reading is an exploration of intellect. Hiking is exploration in nature. Playing/listening to music is an exploration of emotion.

The uniqueness of Jesus that lives within my heart is the desire for His love to be an adventure. My mission statement is, ‘to love people so well, they adventure with the being behind my love, and walk away grown.’ I believe adventure of any sort should grow you, stretch you, and challenge you. The Lord wants the same for us in life. There is a verse in Genesis 16 when Hagar is running from Sarai when the Spirit comes upon Hagar and asks, “where have you come from and where are you going.” The Spirit wants to show us so much but we have to have a yes within our spirit in order to actually allow adventure in our own life. I want you to imagine you the Spirit is specifically speaking to you and says “Where have you come from and where are you going?” Where actually are you willing to let the Spirit take you because let me tell you, if you know Jesus you know adventure.