Adventurous Hearts

And so it begins…

The month of May has become “adrenaline month” for me over the past few years.  My birthday is on the 1st and I am planning my fourth pilgrimage to the skydiving mecca of Chester, SC and Skydive Carolina.  I have never experienced a rush greater than jumping out of a plane at 12,000 ft and plummeting to Earth at 120mph.  I highly recommend it!

Even more exciting to me however, is the chance to escape with 30 of my friends from our church community to the New River Gorge in West Virginia for a weekend of whitewater rafting.

I begin salivating for this trip several months in advance as its always so great to get away with other brothers to spend time together in God’s Creation and in fellowship with one another.  New friendships are birthed and old ones strengthened as we come away with embellished stories of bravery on the river and sweet music sung around a campfire.  It seems we wind up living off of these stories for months afterward with high fives in the hall at church or a fond “…remember when you fell out of the boat!”

This year, I am speaking at the event for the first time and honestly, I have been a bit nervous.  Not the kind of nerves I used to get when I had to give a presentation to my boss at work but the kind where you feel like you have so much you want to say that it all gets jumbled in your head. (not sure if anyone else experiences that phenomenon but if you do, you know what I mean!)

As men, I think we inherit our adventurous heart from God Himself.  We see example after example in the Bible from Jesus spending 40 days in the desert being tempted by his arch enemy to his excursion out on the water to calm his terrified disciples during a viscious storm.  I mean he created a cosmos of incredible beauty and let us loose in it, telling us to take dominion over it.  How much greater an adventure could we have been offered?  It is “written on our heart” as they say!

What I find lingering in my spirit this week though is a desire to share the incredible gift that God has given me this year.  You see, He has been a skilled surgeon in my life over the past 12 months, carefully dissecting and treating the cancerous areas in my soul.  He has graciously treated the infection caused by years of bad habits and wrong thinking and for the first time in years, I can taste freedom. 
Don’t get me wrong, I have not arrived at freedom’s feast just yet but the aroma coming from the table is incredible.

I look forward to a taste this weekend!