Everyday Adventures

Since coming home from YWAM, I haven’t really felt like I’ve had a lot of material for this blog. Where are all the adventures of this supposedly adventurous free-range Christian? I was supposed to be off exploring and changing the world by now! Now, I do have adventures planned–I have about a trip per month on average this coming year–but for the past few of months my life has felt bland sometimes. The days kind of run together…but as I look back, I realize how much I’ve actually done.

It’s not always about the big adventures. Those are fun. I love them. But there are little adventures every day, and I love those too! Since I’ve gotten home, I’ve had hundreds of little adventures. My mom and I perfected macaroons. We learned how to make croissants from scratch. (It’s been a very scrummy couple of months.) I started crocheting my own boots. (I’ve only done one, and it’s really ugly. I need to re-do it. Adventure in progress.) I’ve stuffed beanbag chairs. (If you’ve ever attempted this, you know that it very nearly qualifies as a BIG adventure.) We finished roofing the entryway. We started building a hobbit house in the backyard. I’ve visited my nephew twice, and he (plus his parents, of course!) has visited here once. We got a new puppy and she’s ALWAYS an adventure. Today I learned how to plow with the ATV. (I feel like a real bad-ass!) Our little Bible fellowship hosted an internationally attended event up at Tahoe, and it was a great success! I’ve applied for two grad schools (soon to be four). I started a prayer group. I’ve managed to (mostly) keep up with this blog. I’ve made new friends, started attending a new church, reconnected with my family’s fellowship, worked in construction (briefly), organized two pantries, become a chalkboard artist, visited ancient petroglyphs, nearly lost a truck off-roading (those last two happened on the same day)…the list goes on. The day by day seems simple and mundane, but as I look back and see the accumulation of my experiences, I’m suddenly impressed with and so so thankful for how much managed to get crammed into so short a time.

Plus, I still get to COMMUNICATE WITH GOD daily, as much as I want. Which means the learning is endless. It’s again a matter of a slow accumulation. Most days I pray and nothing really exciting comes up. I may write down a brief thought or two. But as I look back through my journal since I’ve been home, SO MANY things have clicked for me during this time. So I’m a silly noodle. Of course I still have things to write about. Of course the adventures never cease. I’m doing life with GOD.

I need to remember that. I need to appreciate it more. It’s so easy to get caught up in what I’m not doing yet or wanted to be doing or what that other person is doing or what I missed out on because of another snowstorm (seriously…they’re always at inopportune times). And that quickly spirals into comparison and discontent and if I’m not careful I’ll end right back up in discouragement, where I started last spring. But every time I remember to be thankful, every time I start thinking about what God has done and where He has brought me…I’m just overwhelmed by His goodness. May not be my big plans, but His plans are so much bigger in a so much subtler way. Synergy–the total is greater than the sum of its parts. Because somehow these ordinary days add up to an extraordinary lifetime. Just need to remember to savor the adventures that are happening every day. And remember that a lifetime of little adventures with God (with some big ones thrown in, just for fun) is bound to turn out to be more profound that we could have ever imagined it would be as we lived out one little, everyday adventure at a time.