Live the Adventure of Following Jesus!
Live the Adventure of following Jesus! Here are some of what you might experience in following Him:
- Be born again as Jesus was born into this world! Really that means to be born again and again for us, because it takes a lot of time to give up all that the world has taught us in favor of being true to God. Discover how to see and to hear as Jesus wants us to take in what He is teaching us today and every day. That means we have a lot of changes that need to made in us so that we can actually see and hear what He is saying to each of us.
- Live in the present anticipating that things will change and not knowing what that will that be like! This is really the heart of the adventure—to admit that we have no idea what is coming next and living in anticipation of whatever it will be. Mainly it means that we are to live in this present moment, not worrying about the past or the future. That means we have to surrender our expectations, our desires for our life, our preferences in favor of what life gives us. We can even see the new things in our lives as lessons to be learned, grace to be received, blessings to enjoy. Then we are attuned to what God is saying to us in this moment and the next. Then we have a true partnership with God; He’s still the boss, but we are in tune with Him.
- Don’t take anything personally; everything is for your benefit and by extension, God’s benefit as well as humanity’s. There is no judgment on God’s part in the events of your life as long as you choose to live under God’s laws. This earth is a difficult place to live and bad things happen to everyone, although some seem to endure a whole lot more than others. The benefit of even the difficult things in our lives lies in facing head on what has happened and seeing what it is you are to learn from it. Because it is in learning the lesson that comes out of abuse or out of growing up in a hell-fire-and-damnation church or life-changing illnesses or poverty or early loss of a parent—whatever we have had to endure in our lives can be a great teacher once we are willing to acknowledge that it actually happened to us and how it affected us and now, finally, what is the lesson about life that it has taught us.
And then, when we have grasped the lesson, we can help others who suffer the same kind of problems. And that is where the joy comes in. And peace. Think of the ex-alcoholic counseling new members of AA. Or a parent who raised a Down’s Syndrome child and helping others by sharing what she has learned with other parents. Or the sufferers of sexual or other abuse helping young adults through reaching back into their own experiences—which they’d rather forget!—and helping them find the jewel, the lesson for them.
Can you feel the freedom from the lightening of our load–the suffering, the world’s burdens and thinking—and the partnership with God that results from giving up all the world’s ways? Try it; you’ll love it!