If adventures weren't filled with a certain degree of challenge, danger, and the unknown we wouldn't call them adventures, they would literally be just a walk in the park. Strolling along, paved path, and not too many foreseeable obstacles as we take a walk in the park, but that isn't an adventure and honestly that doesn't really look like the way life happens for the vast majority of us either. Walking in the park is fine for a little stroll and exercise, but as we all realize, a walk in the park doesn't get you anywhere just around and around the circle we go. That's why our lives need to be adventurous, with all of its challenging unknowns. The challenging times in our lives are when we grow and when we mature into the person God made you and I to be.
Adventurous men and women choose mountains to climb and rivers to forge because of the unknown. Explorers like Christopher Columbus and mountain climbers such as Sir Edmund Hillary did not overcome their challenges in life by paddling around familiar waters or going for a walk in the park, no instead they laid out a course to overcome the unknowns and to reach the peak of their challenges in life. I propose to you that if you are not embracing your challenges in life whatever they may be, you my friend are just out for a walk in the park.
Life should be an adventure, I can attest that many times the challenges I have faced were and have not been memories that top the list of "Most Memorable Moments" in my life, but if I am completely honest with myself the "adventures" I have endured are the very times in my life where I have grown into the man I am today. When things go wobbly, and trust me they will if they aren't already in this crazy world we are living in today, you have to persist, trek forward, and seek the learning that is available to you.
Each of us have differing levels of "adventures" in our lives. For some those would be work related. Challenging co-workers, unreasonable expectations, or uncertain futures each qualify as adventures you must travel. Maybe your adventure is health related, sickness, concerns around Covid-19, long term illnesses, or any of the myriad options that could fill that space. Relational, financial, addictions, or depressions your adventures may look like Mt. Everest, but at the end of the day they are yours and you have to strap up your boots and get to climbing.
The learning curb is deep, but the takeaways are life-changing. The process may be painful and realistically enduring for many, yet the growth that we experience from overcoming the monstrous mountain in our lives turns us into an overcomer, a mountaineer of life. Jesus comforted His disciples with this message of hope, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world." John 16:33. That's it. You will either spend your life trying to stay in the park making laps and wearing out a trail that has already been paved, or you will accept the challenges that are thrown at you like darts at the bullseye, and turn your mountains into moments and your rivers into a channel of hope and new beginnings.
Paddle hard and climb high!
Coach Carter
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