Question of the Week

How would you describe adventurous living?  How do you distinguish adventurous living from reckless living?  Please log on and share your thoughts.

Thinking.... Now There's a Thought

I've long been amazed at what can happen when groups can enter that creative space called 'brainstorming.'  On many occasions, I've been part of groups that get stuck with a decision or an idea.  Somehow, the group begins to brainstorm.  One idea begets another.  Group members become free to lob out their ideas, regardless of how silly they might be.  Very often laughter is part of the process; it becomes playful, creative and, very often, effective.

I believe there's a sort of a 'personal brainstorming' that's a required discipline for folks who would live adventurously.  The personal space--I like the word 'solitude'--helps me to step outside of the expectations of others, the noise of the crowd, the 'tyranny of the urgent,' to think, really think, about my life, my direction, my deep longings, what I really want.  I like the story about the journalist whose editor required her to do a human interest piece.  Uncertain what to do, she sought out people who would be willing to answer three questions.  Her first question was, "What do you want?"  Folks would often give casual, surface kinds of answers.  She then asked her second question: "What do you want?"  Responses often became more thoughtful, more genuine.  She would then ask, for the third time, "What do you want?"  She reported that her threefold repetition of the question often had the effect of helping people get in touch with their deep longings and their creative ideas for their lives.

I wonder what might happen if a few of us could create space in our lives to think prayerfully about them.  Perhaps we would become more aware of a sense of calling, vocation, life goals that are worthy of our best efforts.  Perhaps we would find the strength to pursue those dreams, even when the desire for comfort, approval or even the expectations of others would pull us back.  If, as I believe, God is a generative God, creating possibility, inspiring creativity and imagination, creating space for prayerful thought might just be one of the most important things you or I could do this week, or any other.

An Open Future

One of my pet peeves is when I hear people say of one who has died, "It must have been her time."   I understand that there is some comfort in that thought.  After all, if I believe that God has numbered my days, or the days of my loved ones, so that even the day and the time of death is pre-determined, something of the fear-factor of life is diminished.  I can make my decisions, even risky ones, and say, "Well, I guess if it's my time, it's my time." 

What troubles me about the 'it must have been her time' mindset is that it assumes that the future is already determined, set in stone and nothing will change it.  Again, I understand how that thought can bring comfort.  The problem, in my view, is that this mindset robs us of one of the richest and most beautiful gifts of Christian spirituality, namely, that we are partners with God in shaping the future.  This is seen again and again in the stories of the Bible.  One of my favorites is the story of Jonah, where Jonah reluctantly agrees to go preach the message of God's judgment of the people of Nineveh.  When the inhabitants of that great city repent of their evil ways, we are told that "God changed his mind (!!!)" about the judgment God had announced.  The pagan people of Nineveh turned their lives toward God in such a way that they changed the future!

I believe that the future is open, and that gives a great sense of meaning and responsibility for how I live out my days.  I believe that we can face the future with hope.  Jesus proclaimed that the time of God's reign has drawn near.  His resurrection signals to us that the power of life has swallowed up the power of death.  God's renewal power is let loose in the world, even now, even in this moment as I write, and you read.   In very broad strokes, it seems to me, we can say that God's work of renewal will win the day.  We can imagine that day even now.  Indeed, I believe we must imagine that day even now.   The book of Revelation says that on that day God will say, "Behold, I make all things new"--the completion of God's renewal project!

That said, I believe that the the hopeful future  is only painted in broad strokes.  Much is left to be determined.  We are partners with God in the shaping of the future.  Our decisions really matter.  If we wish, we can, individually and collectively, resist the power of renewal all the way to the grave.  We can hasten our death or prolong it by the choices we make.  We can live before we die, or not.  The most horrific events in human history do not happen because God has willed them (think of the Holocaust, the contemporary tragedy in Darfur), but because humans, individually and collectively, resist God's renewing power unto the worst imaginable ends.  On the other hand, we can partner with God, give ourselves to God's resurrection power, join ourselves to God's healing project, and contribute to the beauty which God is begetting in the creation.  Such, it seems to me, is the calling of the sacred adventure.

Ten Things.... Adventurous People

I'm working on a list of ten things I think adventurous people must be able to do.  Here's a first draft.  I'd love to hear your 'ten things' as well.

1.  Laugh at yourself.
2.  Love deeply
3.  Risk failing
4.  Be decisive
5. Change your mind
6.  Disappoint others (by being true to yourself)
7.  Imagine a better world
8.  Live prayerfully
9.  Work hard
10.  Let go