Adventure!

As we prepared to return to the Philippines in December, a number of friends made comments to us about the adventure that is ahead of us. It quickly became clear that “Adventure” is the theme that the Lord has for us this year, but we are only beginning to learn what God’s idea of adventure is!

We have only a few days left to finish packing and shipping all of our belongings from Palawan to our new home on a new island, as well as finish negotiating to renew the lease on NTM Aviation’s hangar on Palawan, and take care of some other NTM Aviation business here.

It is hard to describe the emotions of our last few days on Palawan. We’ve lived on this island longer than any other one place since we’ve been married, and the majority of our children’s lives have been lived here! As difficult as it is to leave, God is already changing our hearts and giving us an excitement about our new home. A few lines from “Follow Love” by FFH say it well:

I’ve got a heart that’s full of dreams
and a little bit of crazy
I can feel it pulling me to somewhere I have never been
I’m packing up and leaving home
To travel into the great unknown
Its time, I have to go

So here’s goodbye, here’s so long
I must go and follow love
I feel my heart moving on
I must go and follow love
Carry on while I’m gone
This is what I’ve been dreaming of
I miss you so
But I must go, go and follow love

So what is this Adventure that God has called us to? I woke up early this this morning and opened my Bible App, and a verse I read yesterday grabbed my attention: “And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”(Acts 5:32). I   idly looked at a couple of definitions while I was waiting for my coffee to kick in, and suddenly something jumped off the page at me: Strong’s lists “Adventure” as one of the definitions of “Given” in this verse! At first I was almost convinced that there was a mistake, until I looked up “Adventure”, and realized how little I understood of this word. Until quite recently, “Adventure” and “Venture” were interchangeable words, and “Adventure” fundamentally means “to risk or hazard; to put in the power of unforeseen events”. It was most commonly used by sailors who were willing to risk all they had on the chance of making a profit trading goods in a distant port.

In Acts 5:32, we are told in essence that God is willing to risk giving His Holy Spirit to us as we obey him. In turn, the obedience, the adventure that we are called to, is to risk our all for him, and to trust Him fully with events that are beyond our control. I found some of the Antonyms of “Adventure” to be fascinating: “Avoidance”, “Inaction”, “Inactivity” and “Passiveness”, just to name a few. Truly God has called each of us to a life of Adventure, but he has also called each of us to an adventure that is unique to us.

What Adventure is he calling you to?