Tomorow

I think one of the things that draws us to movies is that they give us a chance to live vicariously. For 90 minutes or so, we are transported into a story with a different starting point than our own and we get to lose ourselves in it (for a while at least). I think that’s why there are so many movies driven by the idea of power: super human abilities or characters with the reckless wit to say what you and I never could or would. In that way movies are kind of like sucralose. It’s not sugar, it’s just takes the place of it. Sometimes I wonder if my own movie habit is a poor substitute for real adventure.

I need to pause for a moment and insert this directive: This is not a challenge to avoid the movie theater! I’m deeply fatigued with that part of us that wants to conclude all examples of something are bad just because it’s possible for it to become bad when taken to extremes. Hyponatremia is the term we use to describe an ‘electrolyte imbalance that can come from water intoxication’. Yes, you read that correctly, water intoxication. Does that mean we should all stop drinking water just because it’s possible to encounter difficulties if you drank 2 gallons of it?

Anyway, back to the main thought. On some level, watching and adventure is a very poor substitute for living one. Think of this: you have two options when it comes to how you think about your own origins. You were either made on purpose by some intelligence as part of a dream or a scheme. In which case you can safely assume you were made to have an adventure by that intelligent being. Alternatively, you can assume you were made as an accident of particles colliding first in the emptiness of pre-existent space and then as an additional accident of two things colliding in your mother’s womb. In which case you might as well have an adventure because your life is going to happen anyway and then it will end.

So it doesn’t matter (in my mind) how you slice it. You have a cause to get up tomorrow and start making great decisions about great things all over again. I see no reason for any of us to live on repeat (moving from one familiar pattern of choices to another). All this comes to mind because this Sunday is the launch of our summer teaching series: “Thoughts for the Open Road”.

You have this two-month opportunity to ‘fiddle’ a bit in the midst of your lightened obligations over the course of the summer. Why not take it as an opportunity to have an adventure? And more than just an adventure of motorized water equipment (or something like that), why not also have an adventure of personal change as well? Our teaching team has put together 10 things to think about as you rethink yourself this summer. Join us on Sundays when you can (for a BBQ among other things), and tune into the podcast while you’re on ‘the open road’.

Something to think about,

Chris