My most favorite part in the Hobbit trilogy is where the dwarves are showing up at Bilbo's door. Bilbo is super flustered and bothered by this intrusion in his normal, food-filled routine. When everyone is there, Gandalf tells him about the adventure and their need for his ... ahem, burgling talent. Bilbo tells them all that his is not a burgaler that they have the wrong hobbit and should go on their merry way to the Misty Mountian without him.
But Gandalf knows that this is what Bilbo needs. It's exactly the kind of thing this food loving, non-adventuring Hobbit is destined for -
adventure. Gandalf tells Bilbo this, that his family is destanded for adventure. Bilbo responds that he just "can't go running off into the blue!"
And yet ... not ten minutes later in the movie, he does. He drops everything and runs off with Thorin Oakenshield and Co. And while Bilbo has a lot of hardships, endures things his kinfolk can't begin to imagine and comes home with the burden of the real world, he is a better hobbit for having lived the adventure Gandalf called him on.
God calls us to the adventure, too. And it's a lot like Bilbo's. It's not always going to be fun and full of wonderful surprises and that's okay. In fact, God doesn't calls us to all fun, but he does call us to an adventure of lifetime.
I know. You're saying, shouldn't that be of A lifetime? Nope. Lifetime. Our whole life is one giant adventure story being written by our heavenly author.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."
I may not understand God's plan or think his plan is right, but even so I need to trust that he knows what he's doing even when I think it sucks and I'd rather be anywhere but here. :)
And I'm not just preaching to preach. No, my family has been on a heck of an adventure. An adventure I didn't really want to always be on, but it has turned out pretty good, even though I still don't understand where I'm going!
And I want to take a minute to share our story with you:
When I was six years old, my dad was asked to leave his job as a Youth Pastor in my home town of Battle Creek Michigan. For a year my dad worked at the local Target. After that, he and my mom felt God calling them to join Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU).
Life was crazy. We'd travel raising support so we could move to Little Rock, Arkansas. But again, God had a plot twist on our life. The church we had been going to for five years was looking for a new senior pastor. A lady who was very close to me - had been the reason we stayed at the church at all - asked my dad to put in his resume. My dad was like , "Sorry, but no. No more ministry work!" and God was like, "we'll see about that!"
Then we got stuck. We couldn't raise the last $200 to head to Little Rock. We'd gain some and then lose some. And for the most part, it wasn't us. One guy later told my dad he'd felt God telling him to stop supporting us.
So my dad put in his resume. And got the job. Life was good for another three years.
But problems have a way of arising in a church.
I don't know all the details. I don't need too. All I know is our church split. I lost most of my friends in Youth Group. What once had been a group of nearly thirty students, got cut to me, my two best friends and the youth pastor's three daughters.
I was not to distraught though. The people I had been hanging out with weren't the best of influences and I still had two of my closest friends in the church.
We didn't grow much in that year. In fact, you could say our church was rather dormant.
Then one of the closest men to our family during the whole church split, a man my family had started to call 'Uncle' turned around and took over the church. He poisoned people's minds. Hinted that my dad was abusive when my dad was anything but. And my best friend's dad was in on it too. They managed to blackmail my dad with his severance pay. We couldn't tell anyone what had happened for six months.
It hurt. I was angry and bitter at those stupid people. But God was working on my heart. We went to a summer time church at Gull Lake Ministries. One of the speakers there talked about living God's adventure. he said it might not always be fun, that to gain friends, sometimes we have to lose the ones we have, but when we live the adventure planned for us, God will reward us! I was crying so hard. This was what I needed.
My dad was offered a job in Aledo, Illinois this August. And while it will mean leaving all the awesome people here in Michigan, I know it's where God has called us.
That's the start of my adventure. It only took ten years to get it started and it's not over yet. In fact, that's the whole reason I started this Adventure Blog, to share with you what God teaches me as I head out on this new chapter of this remarkable Story called Life. God's adventure is always the best place to be.
And who knows? Like Bilbo, I might just end up change not only my life, but the life of my friends and family, too. And I think that's a pretty awesome why to start an adventure don't you?
