Adventure

Adventure is an important part of life.  That is so true for me, for my family, and for my mentees.  Much of what the world offers up is distractions to numb us or smaller stories for us to live in (as opposed to God's Story, which is full of adventure, risk, joy, suffering, and purpose).  I am learning to embrace the adventure of life that God has me on, and I spend a lot of time helping my family and my mentees to see life as an adventure that God has in store for us all.

Last night, a boy in the LAMP program stopped by to visit us at our house in Homewood so that he could have some help with his math homework.  He was just in time to have dinner with us, so we all shared a meal together.  Then, after dinner I said, "If we're going to do your math homework, then let's have an adventure and go some place for inspiration!"  So we drove to Oakland and went to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh to do his homework.  We studied in the tallest school building in this hemisphere of the world.  We rode the elevator to the top floor and I helped him dream about what he wanted to do with his life some day.  We talked about how life was an adventure, and the homework that he was supposed to do in this his seventh grade year was just a part of the adventure.  It all adds up to something... God's purposes for his life.

People often ask me if my wife and daughters feel safe in Homewood.  I always tell people that I have not set out to lead my wife and daughters into a life of safety, far removed from the adventures that God has planned for us.  Instead, I plan to go where God is leading and embrace the risk of adventure that is the central theme to the Christian life.  God does not want us to play it safe.  I don't think God is that interested in the American Dream, including how safe our neighborhood is, or how big our cars and house are, or how much money we responsibly saved up for retirement.  God intends for our lives to be an adventure... and as a parent, I should not be sheltering my children from that adventure for them to suddenly try to discover it some day once they are adults.  There is no reason why they cannot be living out the adventure of God's purposes right now, at a young age.  My children experience the adventure with their mom and dad, and they are learning how to navigate cities and complex circumstances.  They are learning how to serve others.  Adventure is not meant to be talked about... it is meant to be lived.  God is on a mission to redeem the world.  He does not want us to play it safe.

One of my mentors, Dr. Randy White, raised his family in the Lowell Neighborhood of Fresno, California, which is a neighborhood with the highest levels of concentrated poverty in the United States.  In describing why he chose to raise his family there, he wrote "The American family today is in great need of adventure, and I don't mean more trips to Disneyland. Our vision of life is so small that we are instantly dissatisfied when we attain it.  W are in need of an overarching purpose for the family - a purpose bigger than the family itself.  Moving to the Lowell Neighborhood has been the most focusing experience in my family's life.  First it scrambled our values, and then it created a wonderful new center.  The city has been an able teacher in leadership and outreach, a skilled provider of positive and negative role models, a jarring tutor in conflict resolution and a deliberate trainer in courage.  There have been countless other areas of growth for us all.  God has been faithful to lead the whole family, not just the dad, into an exciting journey which is helping us all to mature in Christ.  What I see happening in our family gives me hope that the powerful and pervasive cultural pressures that are exerted on a family - that try to twist and conform it to an impotent shallowness - cannot compete with the adventure that God is leading us through.  The things God is producing in our lives are well worth the risks of the environment." - Journey to the Center of the City