Just Around the bend.

"Live the adventure", that's the name of this blog. It stems from the fact that I believe a life lived for God is in adventure. Like Most adventures it requires a Journey, it can be a very frustrating Journey for most of us. It seems like some times I am like a little kid in the car asking "are we there yet". I remember when I was little, I was raised in Des Moines, IA. Its a short 4 hour jaunt from Minneapolis, MN, where the majority of my fathers family lived. Every time a family event happened dad would pile us in the car. My Sister and I would always bring as many toys and games as we could cram into the available space. We had blankets and pillows as well as plenty of snacks. You think we were trying to survive nuclear winter with all they stuff we would pack. I remember every time my dad would put the car in drive my mind would say in a quite dreading tone, "here we go". What was mind dreading, the minutes that seemed like hours and the hours that seemed like days. In times spans where I thought we must have traversed continents we had only traveled a few miles. It was awful. The whole time I am asking "are we there yet". I tell you this story because as a child my concept of time and space was not fully developed, four hours stuck in the back seat did seem like an eternity. As an adult I have traveled the world, spent over 24 hours in a plane on a single trip, with no breaks now four hours is a walk in the park, the ride is over before I realize it. So where am I going with this. We have people have an undeveloped sense of time and space when it comes to the Journey Christ has sent us on. We are not able to see around the bend,where not able to see the big picture, we don't know the end from the beginning. Because of this our present circumstances seem longer and bigger than they truly are and the promises and orders of God seem much smaller than when we first believed. Ever sensed a calling in your spirit and then embarked on the journey to fulfill that calling only to encounter difficulty, in these situations I think we often find ourselves asking "Did God really say that" did I hear him correctly, I mean this terrible thing is happening did God really call us here. We have all asked the question. The Israelites did when they were in the desert with the Red sea on one side and a pursuing Egyptian army on the other. They cried out " Why did you bring us out of Egypt, do die in the desert" their comment was foolish, many of us have made similar ones. We wonder why God brought us to our current desert to die. The bottom line is God did not put Israel there to die, if you finish the story God put the Israelites there to part the Red Sea and for Israel to walk across it as on dry land, which made for a much sweeter adventure. The Israelites cried out because they could not see around the bend, the big picture alluded them. We must believe one thing- God never sends you to the desert to die, you are in the desert to see the Red sea part and for you to move across it as on dry ground. I want to quote to from the book of John 10 verses four and five. "4"When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5"A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.". I quote this to you because if you are a sheep of God, in other words one of his followers than you do hear his voice and he did call you here, he did set you on the journey and right now the lord cries out to you "if you could only see around the bend". Thanks be to God for what we can not see and what we do not know because that just means the adventure is more amazing than we could ever imagine and bigger than we could possibly comprehend. Be encouraged and hold our for what is around the bend.