Ten Ways to Sabotage Adventure

Very often I hunger and thirst to embrace life as a sacred adventure, but I've learned that there are hundreds of ways to sabotage that longing.  (I don't even have to look to others for help.)  Here are ten of my time-tested suggestions for disrupting the call to adventure. 

1.  Worry a lot about what others think of you.  Working hard to manage others' impressions of you is a full-time job and will surely distract you from your own adventure.
2.  Bury yourself in noise and activity.  In so doing, you never have to listen to the hungering and thirsting of your heart.  Keeping the radio in the car tuned to sports talk or news talk is a fabulous strategy.  And be sure to respond to every Facebook post and every email.
3.  If it is absolutely necessary to pray (best to avoid it, of course), be sure to avoid quieting your soul.  (Ignore Psalm 131 at all costs!)  Too many people have learned that becoming fully present to God regularly over many months lends itself to becoming less anxious about the affairs of the day and more open to one's sense of call.  Dangerous indeed!  
4.  When reading the Bible (again, best to avoid), focus on getting it right.  The key is to read the Bible to prove the Baptists, Lutherans, Orthodox, et. al. wrong.  Whatever you do, don't read the Bible as a narrative of which our lives are part.
5.  Related to 4, if you get caught up in the narrative of Scripture (sometimes it's bound to happen), put all of your energies into turning it into a system of thought.  For example, if you encounter God on a Tuesday morning at 6:16, make it a law that you and others should seek God's face every Tuesday at 6:16.  Remember, the law kills the adventure!
6. Guard the split of the sacred and the secular like your life depends on it!  Love only Christian music, Christian art and Christian beauty. 
7.  Remember, the adventure happens after you die.   
8.  Avoid your neighbor's pain.  You have enough of your own.  Many people have been dangerously tempted to live adventurously by paying attention to the intersection between their gifts and the world's pain.
9.  Know which box you fit in!  If you haven't yet taken a temperament analysis, do so right now.  Remember, those kind of tests determine who you are.  If your box says you're an extrovert, you don't ever have to try to learn how to be alone.  And if it says you're an introvert, relax, you don't have to try to be around people.  Your box determines you!
10.  Remember, old dogs can't learn new tricks.  Change is a myth.  People don't grow.  Life is much easier if you don't try.