“Are you ready for an adventure?”

I’m writing this morning sitting at my kitchen table with the back door open so our Black Lab, Princess Aurora Sleeping Beauty Patchett, can come in and out while I work.  Through the door I can hear the early morning birds singing, the neighborhood dogs greeting each other, and the sprinklers hissing.  In a few hours, I expect to hear the voices of kids laughing and playing, cars and trucks, and lawn mowers.  When they get up, my youngest three will beg to eat breakfast on the porch before spending most of their day outside.

If I stay inside, I will miss out on seeing all this happen.

John Ortberg states, ” An open door is the greatest adventure of life because it means the possibility of being useful to God.”  In the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, one of the three core needs identified is “To play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure”. Does that make you catch your breath like it does me? Cue Belle singing “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere.  I want it more than I can tell.”

When I was little, my brother and I played games filled with adventures — in space with suits we crafted with items found around the house, in the wilderness on wild horses (that doubled as swings), or in small cardboard boxes across great oceans of couches to name a few.

As some of you know (or guessed through reading) I feel like I’m in a period of transition.  I’m tired of paying it safe!  Having OCD, you would think I like the daily routine; part of me does.  But, a deeper part of me craves adventure and change.  If you would have asked me 15 years ago if I liked change, I would have said NO!  Then came my breaking point with my Massive Depressive Episode and suicide attempt, and change became the way out.  I went back to school, got a job, got divorced, moved into an apartment.  I tried new foods, said “Yes” to as much as I could while still being a responsible mother. During this time I met tons of people, went on mini adventures, and felt more alive than I ever had.  I got out of my head and into my life.   “The open door is often more about where my insides are going than where my outsides are going” says John Ortberg.

Terri Brady does a phenomenal job of talking about Dr. Seuss’s book Oh, The Places You’ll Go (click this link to buy the CD). Terri, Dr. Seuss, and John Ortberg all point out that success isn’t guaranteed when we step through those doors in faith.  In fact, sometimes we will fail.  Failure leads us to learn about ourselves, to become humble enough to be instructed, to increase our faith.  Also, what we perceive as failure might really be the path to amazing things.  May I point out that Jesus was called to come to Earth and He was crucified.  Standing at the foot of the cross at that period of time, one might think, “He failed.”  Then God opens the door to a tomb, Christ is resurrected, and the story that looked like a failure is really the greatest story of love and hope I’ve ever read!  “It’s better to have a little faith in a big God than to have a lot of faith in a little god.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for an adventure!

Tell me about a time you said “YES!” to an opened door.  What were you called to do?  How did it change you?  What can I do to support you in walking through another opened door?