i do believe it's time... for adventure

i heard something the other day. i got thinking. 

we put ourselves up so high. like life's this ladder that you've got to get to the top of. you've got to do more good and say better things and wear different clothes than yesterday. 

and there we are, standing at the top, looking down at the world. seeing things we wish were different. but we can't do anything to change it, because we're standing too high. 

you know where Jesus is? he's not in the middle of the space between the ground and the clouds, aimlessly floating through the air. uh-uh, that's not Jesus. 

the lower down you are, the more you'll see Jesus.

what's meant by that, is... when Jesus came, what'd he do? he helped people, he had compassion. in Luke 14, he went to Nazareth, and he read these words:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

    that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

¹⁹ 

    and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. 

 This is God, and He's not equal with us. But what'd he do? He... 

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Reading those words... that's exactly what we try to do sometimes, isn't it? We try so hard to be like Jesus. But what'd Jesus do? He didn't proclaim His greatness or anything like that. Nope. He had adventures around the country, He met so many people; loved with everything He was.

How'd He do it? How'd He come to be apart of so many people's lives? How'd they see something innocent, good, beautiful in Him?

Jesus wasn't climbing some ladder. He wasn't in it to be cool or to be loved or wanted or accepted or anythin'. Jesus was here to love.

This is an actual adventure. So, what do we do? We find some friends. Family. Jesus.

the darker the place you go, the brighter your light will be.

I reckon that's what Jesus did. Jesus had his twelve buddies accompanying him on his roadtrip, and they went on this adventure and oh, how they loved. his disciples, a couple of times that ladder was thrust into their faces and they were like, "oh, so Jesus, by the way -- which one of us is the greatest?" Jesus threw away that ladder so quick!

via pinterest

how do we go about this? i found a verse this morning.


Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?


dear God, 
this is adventure. no joke. this is adventure. 
oh, thankYou! for inviting me. for letting me join the adventure. 
adventure,
begins now.