God's Adventure

Well, here is it one hour before Chirstmas day 2011. I still haven't posted any pictures (except on Facebook) but maybe one day I'll get around to it. This Christmas season has been weird in a ton of ways. Missing people, missing food, missing snow. Okay, well, I've never actually had snow for Christmas but I do miss the snow from my New Hampshire days. Also I am a "missing person", skipping Christmas as it were to go to work. very responsible of me and everything, probably the right thing to do...but sad none the less. Oh yes, it's been an unusual month, but as I sit here in my Grinch pj pants and orange sweatshirt, I think about Christmas and what the true purpose of it is.
Simply put, it's a start. The start of Christ's life on earth. A celebration of the beginning of God's perfect plan. Like that trip you've been planning for 4 years and finally your all pack up and driving out the drive way. I was reading a devotional earlier this evening, by Max Lucado, about going on God's adventure versus staying home and being safe. I was struck by the term "adventure". It conjures up pictures of sailing ships, jungles, dragons, pirates, and Bilbo Baggins. And as these swirled in my imagination a longing from deep inside me swelled up and a grin crept onto my face as I thought about me and Jesus taking and adventure together! No more boring seemingly meaningless work, no more sitting around wasting time. Off to great places! Off to see the see and save the world!
And then....reality hit. What if this, what I'm doing right now, is God's adventure? What if sailing the ocean as a missionary pirate with a elephant and a dragon is my adventure? What if running a bed and breakfast / missionary furlow house is my adventure? What if working in the Emergency Room in downtown Atlanta and finding some tiny apartment with a good sunrise view is my adventure? These are MY adventures...not God's. What if God's really is working a job I hate, having my closest friends on the other side of the country, and trying to make A's in school? If He sent me a letter in the mail with specific instructions that these are my duties, would I say, "Yes"?
On one side, yes. With all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. On the other, no. I will break free of this and find God's will, because, this simply cannot be it. It is not in me. This is the truth. But praise be to God, my strength does not come from within. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." (Jude 24-25)
Christmas is about a beginning, and perhaps the Christmas is a beginning for me also. Perhaps it is the start of contentment in my heart to be in God's adventure. Contentment would be a good Christmas present :o)

Merry Christmas and Peace to all!

To come!

Well, I haven't posted anything a long time, But I'm going to try and post of pictures from the last year soon. My last final is tomorrow, and then maybe I can catch up on pictures and pick a few of the best ones (or worst if their funny...) to post :-)