My friend, Amanda, is graduating in less than two weeks. She'll leave school, get married, and begin experiencing ministry as a young, married, college graduate. As a good friend, she left me some of her old textbooks, one of which is titled The Unexpected Adventure. It caught my eye as I was working on packing for summer, so I stopped, sat down on my floor, and cracked open this book. Lee Strobel, co-author of this book and famous atheist-turned-Christian, writes about this adventure in the introduction. He describes how this lifestyle turns the dull Christian life in to an action-packed wild ride. He describes the improvement in Bible study, prayer, worship and dependence upon God as the amplified details of this kind of life.
At Bible college, we like to think that we know how to be spiritual. We read our Bibles all the time for assignments, and we study how to live a Christian life. This gets to be a general description of Christianity. We go to church, read our Bibles for personal devotional purposes, and interact with other Christians, all to say that we're in good standing with God. This is probably true. We probably are in good standing with God, and He probably isn't going to condemn us for this lifestyle. However, we are selfish.
We read the Bible for us. We pray for us. We worship to experience God for us. We depend on God to fulfill our own needs. And that is all fine. But that's not what it's all about.
I haven't had much experience in witnessing, and to be honest I'm terrified of the idea. I feel unprepared and inadequate. The Bible says to be ready at all times to give an answer for the hope we have in us. But how will we know that we're ready? By living this unexpected adventure.
Strobel talks about living life as usual, but knowing that any moment could turn into an adventure. Any day can start out boring and end out mind-blowing. Our spiritual lives are meant to be rich, not just for our sake, but for the sake of those who desire that hope we have in us. We are meant to draw near to God so that we can have plenty to share with those who need Him as well. What a beautiful thought. What an unexpected adventure. Praise God for desiring to take us on this ride. Are you ready to go?
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