Coming Alive

Today while I was playing golf with some awesome guys one of them joked about the “Choose your own adventure” books from way back when.  I immidiately remembered a blog that I wrote last October, and made the mental note to come home and read it.  Man, its so encouraging to see where God had me, has me, and is taking me since writing that!  In hindsight it might be kind of cheesy, but it psyches me up so back off.  Anyway, I copied it below:

Choose Your Own Adventure

This blog is about the young adult book series by Edward Packard, “Choose your own adventure”.

If you decide to read this blog, continue below
If you decide to go back, hit the green arrow button at the top left hand of your page

When I was younger I read many of Packard’s books.  They were a lot of fun even though I never found out who killed Harlowe Thrombay nor solved the mystery of the secret room.  Instead I often times found myself getting stabbed in the back or being responsible for the death of one of my partners as the villain learned of my investigation. 

If you would like to continue the trip down memory lane, continue below
If you would like to take the exit ramp now, click the “block buddy” option under my picture on the homepage.

10 year old sleuths everywhere began their crime fighting by making the rookie mistake of starting at the beginning.  All the while you could pick out the real Hardy Boy apprenti by the technique of searching for the desired result and working backwards.  One of Packard’s books was especially troublesome upon realization that the destination of the fantastical island we were searching for was in fact a page that no “path” led to*!   Talk about art imitating life.

At this point the blog will turn serious and spiritual, if you would like to come along, continue below.
If you would like to stay in the kiddie pool, then stick your head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend to be invisible.

Recently Kristan and I were thrust back into Packard’s world of choosing our adventure.  God, opposing forces of logic and “counsel”* called us to church plant.  I sat in my study in my home and travelled from fear to excitement to a weird blend of the two that brought about the commencement of crying* and just knew.  I hate that it started so mystical like, but God has confirmed this call through so much over the past 6 months.  More on this in another blog. 

The beautiful thing about the choice before us is that we are not called to it alone.  Unlike the young adult book series we live within a community of faith and love that calls us to make decisions and journeys together.  So…

If you would like to join Kristan and I on this journey of church planting…  (maybe its not church planting for you.  Maybe its a job, or a relationship, or a commitment to Christ or ministry)…step out on faith now and believe that God is going to do something amazing.
If you would like to play it safe, reject that which flies in the face of logic, and follow the crowd…pick up a new book b/c you arent choosing any adventure at all. 

*The Island of Time (1997) – The page existed for the hero to find the island and live happily ever after, but there was no succession of choices to get there.  This book, possibly the first one some kids ever read, served to send a powerful, and terribly tragic message to the audiance!  Oh well, sono afterwards the internet gained noteriety and nobody read anymore anyway.

*”Counsel” is not in opposition of God of course, however, like the words of Peter to Jesus that earned the response, “get behind me Satan” we sometimes need to reject the words of those who are confident in their opinions.  Wise counsel, from those who know our hearts, has been a great comfort to Kristan and I the past few months (even when we disagree with it).

*Im not really sure of the emotion I felt at this time.  It was a real one though and worth mentioning.