A Spirit of Adventure

Florence Chadwick at a very young age loved to swim. At age 6 she entered her first swimming contest and was soundly defeated. At age 10 she won her first contest swimming in rough water. She grew up in San Diego and loved to swim distances and would swim to Coronado Island. One of her goals was to be the first women ever to swim the21 mile Catalina Channel between Catalina Island and Palos Verde, California. After years of training and having successfully swam the English Channel she was ready to take on the challenge. “The weather that day was not auspicious-the ocean was ice cold, the fog was so thick that she could hardly see the support boats that followed her, and sharks prowled around her. Several times, her support crew used rifles to drive away the sharks. While Americans watched on television, she swam for hours. Her mother and her trainer, who were in one of the support boats, encouraged her to keep going” (Answers.com: Florence Chadwick). Finally after 15.5 hours of swimming she was totally exhausted and she quit only to discover later that she was a half of a mile from shore. In an interview afterward she stated, "Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I know I could have made it." She returned to San Diego and resumed her training for another 2 months. On her second attempt there was dense fog but she persevered and became the first woman to swim across the channel and set a new record. Florence Chadwick had a tremendous spirit of adventure and determination to accomplish what no one had ever done before. The definition of adventure is: “an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risk; the encountering of risks, the spirit of adventure.” This spirit of adventure which calls us to attempt new things and take on challenges that seem overwhelming is a spirit that God has placed within each of us. Some of you have tapped into it already and some of you are on edge ready to be launched while others are holding back and playing it safe. We live in a culture that encourages us to “take it easy.” My dad used to always say to me when I would leave home, “Take it easy.” I know what he meant...Don’t get too crazy. I decided to change that saying with my daughter so when she would leave home I would often say, “Look for opportunities and take risks.” She has followed my advice and has done many things that her classmates never have done and probably never will. There is I believe in every one of us a spirit of adventure that needs to get stirred up. Unfortunately many people live their lives playing it safe and look forward to the retirement years that will be a time of relaxing, ease, less responsibility, less pressure to perform sort of a take it easy attitude. This frame mind wants to lull us into a lifestyle that is risk free and safe. But this lifestyle is one that is also very sterile and deadly to your spiritual, mental and physical health. You may have heard the story of Larry Waters in the news a few years ago (1982). Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. When he was finally discharged, he had to satisfy himself with watching jets fly over his backyard. One day, Larry, had a bright idea. He decided to fly. He went to the local Army-Navy surplus store and purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. The weather balloons, when fully inflated, would measure more than four feet across. Back home, Larry securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair. He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a test while it was still only a few feet above the ground. Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite, loaded his pellet gun-figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend-and went back to the floating lawn chair. He tied himself in along with his pellet gun and provisions. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard after severing the anchor and in a few hours come back down. Things didn't quite work out that way. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep, he didn't float lazily up to 30 or so feet. Instead he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level of at 30 feet, nor did he level off at 100 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 11,000 feet. At that height he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting, cold and frightened, for more than 14 hours. Then he really got in trouble. He found himself drifting into the primary approach corridor of Los Angeles International Airport. A United pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing a guy in a lawn chair with a gun. Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating 11,000 feet above the airport. LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate. LAX is right on the ocean. Night was falling and the offshore breeze began to flow. It carried Larry out to sea with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Several miles out, the helicopter caught up with Larry. Once the crew determined that Larry was not dangerous, they attempted to close in for a rescue but the draft from the blades would push Larry away whenever they neared. Finally, the helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line and was hauled back to shore. The difficult maneuver was flawlessly executed by the helicopter crew. As soon as Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked why he had done it. Larry stopped, turned and replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around." (Source Patrick Barbour http://www.delta-9.com/net47/myth/balloon.html) That time has come for many people who are not evidencing the spirit of adventure in their lives to get involved, take action and stir up the spirit of adventure!. Couch potato passive Christianity is not what we have been called to do or be. I like to think of Caleb as being one who had this “spirit of adventure.” In Numbers 14:24 he is described as one who had a “different spirit.” I like to call this a spirit of adventure. Caleb was the only other spy with Joshua who came back with a good report and encouraged the people to take the land. Caleb did not freak out at the size of the giants in Hebron, he freaked out at the size of the grapes and all the prebuilt homes and walls that were waiting for them! The forty year delay caused by the disobedience and lack of faith of the people did not quench Caleb’s spirit of adventure. When the time came to conquer the Promised Land he was in the thick of it leading Judah. The Promised Land had many enemies that needed to be conquered and it took years to do it. The reality is Israel never did conquer all the enemies or gain possession of all the land God promised. But Caleb continued to pursue what was promised to him even when he was 85 years old. (Joshua 14) He reminded Joshua of the land that was promised him and demanded that he get it. It did not come without a battle but he was victorious. The land was ruled by the giants of Anak, the very ones who instilled fear in the 10 spies and all the people. The size of the enemy and Caleb’s age did not stop him from taking them on and he defeated them. The spirit of adventure does not need to subside with the degree of difficulty of a task nor our age. I read of a grave stone that said, “John Jones, born April 25, 1830, died May 25, 1870, buried January 12, 1895. His body was not dead when he was forty but he lived as though it was. Many years of his life were wasted perhaps because the spirit of adventure was put to sleep. Our lives were never meant to be like that and we have to fight against a force that I believe is inspired by our enemy that want to lull us into sleep and ineffectiveness no matter what age we are. (Video clip) The Scriptures give us examples of several women who had this spirit and did great things for God and His people. Deborah was one of the judges of Israel who led the nation into victory over their enemies. The Israelites had been in captivity to Jabin King of Canaan for 20 years. God spoke to Deborah that he would deliver them from captivity through Barak and the 10,000 men he would take with him into battle. Barak was not real eager to go to battle and he would only go if Deborah went with him. She went with him but also told him he would lose out on some of the reward. I wonder if he walked behind her or beside her? Deborah went with him and encouraged Barak to pursue the enemy. God brought the victory He had promised. (Judges 4:1-16). Deborah had a spirit of adventure and she used it to motivate Barak the leader of the army to fight the battle to set the people free. Esther was also a woman who had a spirit of adventure. In her role as Queen, she was placed in a very important position in which she had tremendous opportunity to influence the King. When the future of her people was on the line she had a choice to make. She could remain silent and be killed with her people or she could respond with a spirit of adventure and approach the King to seek his help in saving her people. Getting the ear of the King and being able to go before him was not a simple thing. The King had the right to put to death anyone who appeared before him without an invitation and Esther would make an uninvited appearance. It had been 30 days since she had seen the King so she may have thought that she did something wrong and past history of Queen Vashti’s departure probably weighed into her thinking when she stated, “If I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16) Esther made the courageous decision to go for it. She was successful in getting an audience with the King was one thing, but to ask the King to change the plan to annihilate the Jews took a tremendous amount of courage and a spirit of adventure. I imagine her heart was racing, her palms were sweating and her knees where trembling when she made her request of the King. Her request was granted and wicked Haman who had contrived the plan to kill the Jews was put to death with his family. (Esther 4) I wonder how many times we don’t get what we need because we don’t ask; we stifle the spirit of adventure and do not take the risks and ask for something. Have you ever been with someone who asked for something that you thought was out of line, maybe a little too much and you were a little embarrassed to be with them when they asked? And then too your surprise they were given what they asked for? We walk away wishing we had been the one to ask! When I was in college I attended an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group in another city with a friend. The night I attended they conducted a “Bigger or Better” contest. Each team started out with something small and was sent out to different areas of the city. We had to knock on doors of homes or apartments and ask the people if they could trade what we had for something bigger or better. It was a crazy game and probably would not be advisable to do in certain cities. It turned out to be a fun night as the homes we went to were eager to help us and get rid of things they did not want. The group that won the contest came back with a used car! We have many other examples of people in the Bible who had the spirit of adventure. In order for the gospel message to reach the nations men and women had to leave their homes and travel to unknown areas. The Apostle Paul was always looking for new territory to preach the gospel. He did not want to go to areas where the gospel had already be proclaimed but looked for opportunities to reach the unreached. It did not matter how difficult the task was, he was committed to doing what God had called him to do. Paul lived a life of adventure following God’s call. On one occasion as Paul was being transported as a prisoner by ship to Rome, the weather turned bad and the ship was headed for destruction. Paul’s previous advice that warned of the dangers of setting sail went unheeded (Acts 27:10, 11) but now he had gotten the attention of the captain of the ship and was used of God to provide wisdom and counsel that saved the lives of everyone (Acts 27:21-25). What an adventure, being in a storm, crashing the boat and swimming to shore using a piece of the boat as a flotation device! All the while knowing that God had promised him safety for everyone on the ship. Paul entire life seemed like a great adventure. He was always looking ahead for new territory. We know that Paul had his eyes set on reaching Spain but we do not know if he was able to go there. He had a spirit of adventure and was not content to settle down, live a normal life and miss out on all the opportunities and open doors that God would give him to preach the gospel. I believe that coupled with the spirit of adventure is creativity. When we are willing to take on the risks and challenges I believe that God releases creative ideas to help us get the task accomplished. Arlene Richardson in a recent address to a group of students at Columbian International University related these amazing stories of people with a spirit of adventure. Her husband is Steve Richardson who is the son of Don Richardson who was a missionary to Papua New Guinea and author of the book “Peace Child”. He grew up in the jungle and had a very adventurous life as a young man. The spirit of adventure remained in him and motivated him to go to unreached areas. One day he and his wife were in a bookstore in Indonesia and he was looking at a magazine. The magazine showed a remote island of Barkada that had 70,000 people and he immediately wondered if there were unreached people groups that had not heard the gospel message. He took a barge to get to the island and twelve hours later arrived. Just as he had thought the island had unreached people groups who had not heard the gospel. He wrote an article in Mission Frontiers magazine about the island and its needs. The first person to contact him was a lady named Judy, a single woman. She said she would make herself available. She said “Lord send me, I claim this island as my inheritance.” She moved out to the area and made many boat trips to the island because she was not able to live there. Each time she would write down the names of the people and then she started a network of people across the world who would pray for each person by name. She recruited some nationals who were experienced in church planting and formed a team to evangelize the island. One of the couples she recruited could live on the island but they needed a way to sustain themselves and reach out to the people so they started a bakery they called the “Bread of Life.” The bakery became a connecting point with the people and many have come to the Lord all because one single women with the spirit of adventure was willing to go to this unreached people group. Another woman named Cindy who is called the “Betty Crocker of Central Asia”was used of God to reach a very poor community. One morning her friend came to her and said she had a dream and in the dream the Lord to her that they were to go to a far away village and pray for the women and bake cakes. So Cindy and her friend filled with a spirit of adventure went to the village. When they arrived there was no running water, no oven and sporadic electricity so how were they to make cakes?. They just showed up unannounced and started baking cakes. They told the women that God had heard the needs of the women and that he had told them to come to the women and bake cakes and pray for them in Jesus name. One woman had a toaster oven but it did not have a thermostat. The first cake was not a prize winner but the people loved it. Word began to spread around the village and the women began to meet to cook and pray in Jesus name. The ladies began to witness answers to prayer. As the prayers were being answered the ladies wanted to pray more and cook less. Women started to come to Christ. They shared with their husbands why they had changed. Their husbands noticed the change in their wives and they began to inquire about eternal things. Cindy’s husband Henry was kept busy networking with the men who wondered what had happened to their wives. All of this happened because 2 women with a spirit of adventure were willing to obey the voice of God and carry out a creative idea God had planted in them. When we have a spirit of adventure we are willing to take on new challenges at any age to gain everything that God has destined for us. When we have a spirit of adventure we are willing to go to battle to liberate people from the oppression of the enemy. When we have the spirit of adventure we are willing to risk everything and ask for Big things to see things change. When we have the spirit of adventure we set our eyes on reaching the unreached areas and take advantage of every opportunity God gives us. When we have the spirit of adventure we respond in obedience and faith to the call of God and go where he wants us to go to claim our inheritance. When we have the spirit of adventure we hear the voice of God and obey no matter how crazy the idea may appear because we want to see people come to Christ as much as God wants them to come to him. Our lives as believers should be filled with stories of adventure because God has given each one of us a spirit of adventure. When is the last time you did something new, different, maybe unusual or odd, creative, challenging in your walk of obedience with the Lord? Life can become a routine if we let it or it can be a daily adventure as we let the Spirit of God stir up within us a spirit of adventure to believe God for new and creative ideas to share the gospel with perhaps people of a nation unknown to us or simply reach out to your neighborhood to express God’s love for them.. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, he is constant in his character but He is unpredictable in what he will do and use us to do. I pray tonight that God will stir up within each one of us a spirit of adventure to do what needs to be done to reach the lost and unreached in the world.