How to Find Satisfying Adventure

Have you ever come back from an adventure and felt disappointed? Maybe it wasn’t as exciting as you hoped, or maybe it didn’t live up to the hype? This happens to all of us. Is there any form of adventure that always satisfies? And what is the most satisfying adventure? I’ve traveled around the world and done some crazy things, but there’s only one type of adventure that has always left me satisfied.

The Satisfying Adventure

After joining the army and fighting recklessly in an attempt to fill his craving for adventure, Brother Andrew returned to his hometown in the Netherlands. The whole town knew Brother Andrew loved adventure. He loved close calls and near-escapes. During Nazi occupation, he led miniature raids against the Germans. So, it was no surprise when one of his neighbors asked, “Did joining the army satisfy your desire for adventure?” As Brother Andrew reflected on this question, he admitted that joining the army fell far short of filling this desire. But to his surprise, his neighbor added, “If you really want to fill that desire of yours, you should start following God.”

At first, this seemed like an odd statement, but soon after, he trusted in Christ and couldn’t help but to use his longing for adventure to serve Christ. It started gradually. At first, he took a quick trip behind the iron curtain and snuck in some gospel tracts. When he saw the desperation and need for God’s word, he quickly switched to smuggling full Bibles. For years, Brother Andrew smuggled Bibles behind the iron curtain and into communist land. He got caught several times and had dozens of close calls, but each time God worked through the circumstances. Through it all, he pressed on, because this was the satisfying adventure he had always wanted: to take wild steps of faith by following Christ into the unknown.

Brother Andrew would later found Open Doors Ministries, and write the incredible book God’s Smuggler. If you haven’t yet read his book, I strongly encourage you to do so. It will change the way you view the Christian life.

From all my travels and adventures, I can honestly say that the more I followed Christ and took wild steps of faith, the more I felt satisfied and full of life. Living like this is hard, uncomfortable, and uncertain, but so rewarding. Sacrificing things we hold dear for the sake of being faithful followers of Christ always results in greater intimacy with Christ and true satisfaction.

The Wild

God never intended our lives to be spent living in cages of our own creation. We’ve erected these prison walls to protect us from the unknown, the risk, and the discomfort. We look at lions and gorillas in cages and feel sympathy. Certainly, they’d be far happier out in the wild, right?

Shouldn’t we use this same logic for our lives?

The wild is dangerous, uncertain, and often full of hunger and sleepless nights. But the wild is where we find freedom. Where we find ourselves. And, when we follow God out of our cages, we also find God. Not a god mentioned in an old book. Or a distant god you talk about and see small glimpses of in sunsets and rainbows. When we depend on God for the next step or to make it through the next day, we are forced to cling close to him as he carries us from one moment to the next. We hear his voice loud and clear because we can no longer rely on our own understanding or plans.

Do you want to live like this?

Are you fed up with a mundane life, and ready to throw it all away to truly live?

If you want God more than all else, then why not start living this wild life?

But where and how do we start living this way?

Take That First Wild Step of Faith

If you want to step out on this satisfying adventure, stop right here and right now and turn to Jesus. Ask him what the first step is and then do what he says. Odds are, he might ask you to do something weird. You might have to keep praying several times over the course of days or weeks, but keep pressing and keep your eyes and ears open, because he will speak.

But I can promise you one thing, the way he leads will not be about you. It will be all about loving him and loving others. He will use you, but not for the single purpose of making you feel good. Yes, he desires you to be happy and satisfied, but he will only grant either of these when it will bring him praise and draw you closer to him. Don’t use God to feel good. Pursue God, and trust that he will satisfy these desires if/when the time is right.

This, my friends, is the truest form of living wilder.

 

How have you lived this out? What crazy ways have you seen God move in your life? Please comment your thoughts below.

 

 

If you enjoyed this blog, then you will absolutely love my new drone video: The Faith Adventure. I’ll attach it below.

If you’d like to know more about how to hear from God, check out my blog How does God Speak to Us?