More in the Midst

I started reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson a few weeks ago and in my reading today, so many things leapt off the page and into my face. One of those things was being specific with what you want God to do for you. Praying bold specific prayers. That really triggered various trains of thought, but one thought particularly led me to writing this.

I was in the shower and started thinking of my blog and what my purpose is in writing it. Why not just write in my journal? Why not share my thoughts with those in my circle of influence, my friends, my family? Why call my blog Adventure On? Some of the answers were immediate… more people have benefitted from the words God’s put on my heart and exited through my finger tips than just people in my immediate reach, and that’s pretty cool. Words reach further and to more people than if I were to only share with those close to me.

Adventure On!
This Life we’ve been given in compiled of many chapters within a whole story… Whether the chapter you’re in is one with more tears than smiles or more valleys than mountaintops, adventure on! Your story isn’t over.

That’s what my blog heading says. So I went to the first blog post I wrote when I started this blog 3 years ago to see if I’d said why—because I’d already started a blog, Due to Grace, 9 years ago that I’d stopped writing in 2015. At the end of that first post I wrote:

So. Welcome to my thoughts, my story, the story of our [Mason + Charis] adventure, our new chapter in the Musick Book that God’s written and we’re discovering. I will go as far to say that openness and transparency is a gift that God’s given me… so I most likely won’t wait until we’re out of a story before I share my heart. You may get to hear [err… read] about the story in the midst of the hail, the wind, and the rain. But you’ll also read of His promising rainbow and the following sunshine… because the truth is, He is always constant even when we change directions, locations, attitudes, mindsets, relationship statuses [with Him]—you get the point—and no matter the chapter or season we’re in.

Now, the some of the first posts will most likely be those thoughts that have been chillin’ underneath me like eggs waiting for the right time to hatch, but you’ll figure that out once you start reading. I hope you feel encouraged from my heart to yours. And I hope you laugh and smile and cry—if you need to. Happy reading!

Adventure on, folks! 
Charis

I started Adventure On! when Mason and I moved up here to Springfield, our Godventure as we’ve called it, though people here haven’t found it nearly as clever as I have. In re-reading that first post in its entirety, I’ve marveled at how much this adventure we started 3 years ago this month has changed, with it’s twists and turns and being blown over. Ironically, this is how Merriam-Webster defines the word adventure:

(a): an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks. (b): the encountering of risks: an exciting or remarkable experience: an enterprise involving financial risk

I was going to exclude definition 3; however, it is far too applicable to the current leg of our adventure we’re on with God to leave it out.

Three years ago, our big adventure was leaving the only state we’d known together, our stable jobs, selling our house we’d bought less than a year prior, and leaving our people for a city I’d wanted to steer clear of and a city where we only knew 3 people who resided there. But it was an adventure and it was exciting… the unknown was exciting. Have you ever been in a place where it was once comfortable, but then you notice a shift and while you don’t know what’s around the bin, you do know change is on the wind? That feeling. This adventure was the change on the wind and to follow has been thrilling though it hasn’t always been easy. Because that’s adventure… which surprisingly brings this full circle back to the conversation with God I had in the shower about the purpose of Adventure On!.

(I usually end up on rabbit trails not making a full circle that brings me back to where I started, so join me for a short celebration with imaginary confetti…………. Thanks! And continuing on…)

My purpose for Adventure On! is encouragement. It’s to encourage you to approach like with excitement for the risk that’s included when you embark on a life with Christ. It’s to encourage you to not adventure without Him. It’s to be a dealer of hope to remind you that this adventure you’re on is not a losing battle, that the climb is worth it. When I was talking to God about it—entirely out loud—the picture in my mind was a mountain. I know I’m certainly not alone in comparing life to a mountain, but here’s where that picture took me. We all have this fight for the mountaintop, to reach that point of success and often times anywhere below the mountaintop is not good enough. Where we are in life seems to be compared in proximity to how far we have to get to the proverbial [there]. And while that’s not all bad, we miss things along the way if we live life comparing where we are now to there. Life is often lived in a place where there is mountain to climb towards the mountaintop, but there’s also room to climb down to the base of the mountain. Sometimes you’re making your way up and you hit roadblocks that instead of figuring a way around them, you find it causes you to fall back towards the base, seemingly lower than where you started climbing. But there is beauty in the base seasons of life just as there is beauty in the mountaintop seasons in life.

The most beautiful thing about when someone reaches the highest peak of the mountain they’ve climbed is the view. There is no view like the one you see when you’ve reached the place where waterfalls originate or where you can look down to see all the valleys of the Grand Canyon (though I’ve yet to see it myself) or where you can stand at a view that screams “I did it! But how in the world did it make it through all of THAT?!” There is such beauty in seeing from the mountaintop and a birds eye view. It takes a whole lot of work and tenacity and resilience to get up there. It takes making a decision to not quit. It takes knowing when to rest and pitch a tent cause the hike will still be there tomorrow and your body will need the strength to continue. It takes ensuring you’ve got the water and sustenance you need for survival. It takes being prepared for whatever type of weather can be expected and unexpected. You have to be prepared for the climb, make strategic decisions for success, and be specific and intentional with who you have climbing with you. You don’t want to bring someone ready to give up when the wind blows harder than expected or who throws in the towel when the storm gets heavy. You want someone to be able to think through the hardships with you, know where to find the answers, and to operate the tools you each possess to make it where you’re headed.

So then you reach the top! You admire the view. You wonder in awe of how God could create such beauty. You rest after the tiresome, strenuous journey. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna take some pictures and eat something. And then what? Eventually you make your way back down to the halfway point life is lived. That place we embark on journeys upwards or fall downwards, where we ascend or descend the mountainous situations in life. Why? Because there are very few resources at the top. Because we can’t live at a birds eye view. Because we miss all the fine, beautiful details from up there. Because life is ebbing and flowing and conquering mountains as we go. Because when we adventure with God, we live in a constant state of growth and going higher and deeper and sometimes that takes us to places all over the mountain and not just up, much like how grief isn’t a straight line.

And then sometimes you find yourself at the base of the mountain. I know I’ve had a tendency to see the base of the mountain as a place you get to when you’ve messed up. When you’ve made poor choices. Much like reaching rock bottom. However, I’ve learned that’s not always the case. Sometimes in life we start at the base and not the middle where life is lived. But there is beauty there too! From the mountaintop you see where waterfalls originate, but at the base you see the waterfall and you can find refreshment in its pooling. You can see the fine details up close and personal. You can fill up your canteen for the painstaking climb up. You can more than see the river; you can feel the current. At the same time, from the bottom we can also get lost in all the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. While we often find ourselves at the base of a mountain from hardships and pain and trauma, there is more in the midst of that season than being down and out with the fear of, “Will I ever make it up?” Just as much as we adventure up the mountain with God, He is equally present with us at the base. He doesn’t jump into our adventure once it looks like you’re headed in the right direction or once you’re closer to the top than you know. He doesn’t appear at the finish line to congratulate you, but leave you alone while you’re running and when you most need the encouragement to keep going.

Whether you have found yourself at the base, mid-mountain, or almost to the mountaintop, there is more in the midst of your season. There is beauty if you’re willing to shift your perspective and look close enough. There is a time to trudge through the trees and there is a time to lie beside still waters as He refreshes and restores your soul with living water. It matters less where you are on the mountain and more who you’re with on the mountain. It matters less the time it takes to reach the mountaintop and more that you just keep moving and don’t quit. That’s the purpose of my blog, Adventure On! To write from the middle of my adventure’s seasons to encourage us both to keep going. To tell you that rough seasons, trying seasons, painful seasons will come—and you may be in the middle of one—and it’s gonna rain and the storms will come in the middle of your climb. But don’t give up! It’s in these trying times character is built, we learn who we are, and we have the opportunity to deeper learn who God is, so reach up for the hand of God to guide you. Rest when He says to rest. Find strength and comfort in Him. Find the joy in pulling out a tent on the darkest of nights of your soul and admire the stars He reveals, cause they’re brightest when it’s darkest.

My friend, no matter where you are in life, there is more. This isn’t it. This isn’t all there is. There is more beyond the base, and there is more after you’ve reached the mountaintop. I know this has been a mix of literally climbing mountains and figurative mountains we all face in life, either way, choose wisely who is accompanying you on this adventure. Rest when you need to rest, and then get up and move at a pace that keeps you in forward motion and doesn’t pull you backwards. Take note of your surroundings. Take it all in. Pick a flower as you lean in to the climb. Feel the breath in your lungs as you breathe in deeply the fresh air. Smell the trees. Feel the rain on your skin and the sun on your face. And feel the ground beneath your feet as you adventure on.