The Antidote to spiritual Boredom

God never intended for your spiritual life to be boring. In fact, He intended quite the opposite. Your spiritual journey should be an active, lifetime quest. Your life should be full of fun, exploration, friends, growth, and even hardships that test and prove your strength. That is very different from just playing it safe, anchored to the couch. God shapes strong men as they go on adventure. It’s the perfect antidote to spiritual boredom.

God Reveals Himself ON Adventure

Yes, you can and must learn about God intellectually from sitting down to read and reflect on His Word, attending church, and participating in devotions and Bible studies. Through the Bible, we learn about God’s character, His feelings toward people, and His work patterns and principles. But knowing them and personally experiencing them are two different things. Important learning takes place during disciplined study, but the adventure only starts when you apply what you have learned.

Your beliefs are not revealed by what you say you believe; they are revealed by what you practice, by your daily choices. When you read about God in the Bible, you learn what God says about himself. When you put what you have learned into practice, God will make himself personal to you. He will always come through for you and make the truths of the Bible real in your life. Practicing what you learn in the Bible is when real relationship begins, and there is no adventure like it.

In Luke 19, we read about three men who were given money to invest. The first two men took risks and doubled their employer’s investment. This made him very happy, of course, and he rewarded them with big career promotions. Unfortunately, the third guy buried the money he was given; he didn’t even put it in the bank to earn interest. He played it safe, which angered his employer. To justify himself, he said, “I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man” (Luke 19:21).

Yes, God reveals himself to you on adventure, but adventure also reveals what you think and feel about God. The third employee had a low opinion of his employer, and that is why he played it safe. If you play it safe spiritually, it may reveal your lack of trust in God. Will God really come through for me if I stand up and get counted as a Christian in my school? Will my witness really influence my peers to also serve Christ? Should I just blend in and hide the fact I’m a Christian?

You will never know the answer to these questions until you fully throw yourself into the things of God. Until you risk and “lose your life,” your own identity, and become fully identified with Christ, you will not find full life. God reveals himself through adventure.

Choosing a life of adventure with God is not easy. The only way to counter your fears is to let go, trust God, and jump into your adventure with Him. He will absolutely and most certainly come through for you. You won’t believe it until you test it, practice it, and discover it yourself. That’s why you need adventure.

God Shapes Your Character ON Adventure

The lyrics of an old church chorus read, “Change my heart Oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart Oh God. May I be like You.” * There is an inner desire on the part of every one of us to be like Christ. Of course, there is also a desire to live life “my way.” In fact, that is what sin is—living life your way instead of God’s way (James 4:17). The tug-of-war that every person fights is the desire to please God versus the desire to please self (Romans 7:15,19). This old chorus emphasizes that deep desire in every Christian to live God’s way instead of their own way.

It is important to wholeheartedly enter into times of worship and praise at church functions and in personal times of prayer. Singing and praying will deepen your commitment to the Christ-honoring pre-decisions you have made, and at times, they will reveal the need to make other pre-decisions. God does not often change you as you sing and pray. But He will always use those times to prepare you for the adventures ahead, which often include battles that would be lost except for the strength discovered in times of worship and prayer.

The changes He wants to make in your life come most often on your adventure with God. The admirable, manly, and tough Old Testament prophet Isaiah put it this way: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:30–31).

For example, you can pray, “God make me more generous.” But until you start giving away your time and money selflessly for the benefit of others, you will remain unchanged. The adventure might start small by giving your tithe or a missions offering or by volunteering some time to a ministry in your church. Once you take the first step to start an adventure with God, your heart begins to change. When you give, your heart reflects the heart of God, and your heart will grow bigger and stronger. The fists that once clinched and hoarded will begin to loosen their grip on your money and time. You will look at others differently and will reflect God’s generous nature toward them. None of that change would happen except for adventure preceded by time with God.

Whenever God calls, go on an adventure with Him. There He will change you to reflect His character.

God Rewards You AFTER Adventure

Remember the three guys from Luke 19 who were asked to invest money for their employer? The one who avoided all risk and refused the challenging adventure was severely punished. But the two who braved the chance of failure succeeded. They risked it all for their employer and were rewarded with prestigious promotions. Your life of adventure with God will be rewarded!

The author of Hebrews said, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). To be sure, every adventure He calls you on will require faith, which is a total trust that He will never let you down or leave you behind. The verse finishes with a great promise. If you go on God’s adventure, you will be following Him and depending on Him. He will be your Guide. That is what seeking Him is all about. When you do that, you will be rewarded.

If you accept the call to adventure with God, you can expect rewards. Without going on an all-out faith adventure with God, you can expect church to be dull, the Bible to be a list of rules, and your faith to be dead. If you accept this kind of lifestyle, the best you can expect is microwave popcorn, snuggly blankets, knit sweaters, and flannel pajamas. Skip that! God is calling you into the wild unknown with Him. Follow!

God’s adventures are amazing, and His rewards are awesome. Taking risks with God increases your faith, which leads to bigger and better adventures. Your spiritual strength grows. You gain a deep, abiding joy that will see you through tough times. You gain a level of understanding and wisdom beyond your years. Most importantly, your close relationship with God becomes much more intimate. You read the Word differently. You relate with the characters of the Bible because you experience God the way many of them did. God is not a deity you read about in a book; He’s a Person involved in your daily life. You read seeking your next adventure, “What is God asking me to obey next?” These rewards last as long as you keep adventuring with God.

God rewards those who adventure with Him. No adventure? No reward! It’s that simple.

In My Experience:

I have to admit that some of my adventures start with great expectation but soon feel like a test of endurance. “I’m going to obey God and great things are going to happen!” Soon my words of faith turn to complaining. “Where’s God in all this?”

One of the fun activities I most enjoyed about growing up in Bolivia was hiking in the Andes Mountains. My home was at 11,500 feet above sea level and the mountains around La Paz jetted up another 10,000 to 12,000 feet. Living at the foothills of such beauty demanded that I explore it often, and explore it I did.

The ancient Inca civilization established an elaborate road system throughout their empire that my friends and I would hike on weekends and vacations. The Inca trails are extensive and hundreds of miles of it remain intact to this day. My friends and I would anticipate our adventures. We’d ride in the back of open trucks atop cargo on dusty mountain roads to reach a trailhead; often near an abandoned mine. We’d walk on trails where casiquis (Inca messengers) had run thousands of years earlier, carrying official mail to or from the emperor in their capital of Cuzco. We’d camp near or in their tempus (shelters). We’d look for and avoid witch doctors at high mountain passes. Whenever possible we’d hire llamas to carry our gear. And the views, well, they were just breathtaking. How cool!

But things seldom go as planned. Our poor quality gear, most often our stove, would fail. The tree line is 10,500 feet, so there’s little or no wood anywhere. We’d be forced to cook with animal dung. Then it would rain. Or worse, it would mist nonstop, which was the only thing I disliked more than a hard, cold, high-mountain rain. Then there were the river crossings after the rain took out the old rickety footbridge. The swift, turbulent waters were freezing which only added to the danger. Altitude sickness would strike, or someone would sprain an ankle. A promising adventure had gone wrong.

Or had it? I learned that unexpected and unwanted turn-of-events were part of the adventure, not an interruption. I learned the value of preplanning, making “what-if” plans, obtaining or making reliable gear, preparing for emergencies, and most important, pre-determining my attitude.

I know we’re talking about a hiking trip here, but all of this is true of adventuring with God as well. Consistently reading your Bible might feel more like a rainstorm than showers of blessings. The missions trip that promised such benefit is stalled out in fundraising and feels like an impossible uphill climb.

“Where’s God in all this?” I asked myself that once. He immediately answered, “Why don’t you ask Me?” What a novel thought! Rather than view Him as a distant third party out there somewhere who’s abandoned me while out on an adventure, maybe I’d do well to remember He’s in me. He’s just waiting, like the gentleman He is, to be invited into my situation so we can find a way through it together.

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* “Change My Heart Oh God” by Eddie Espinosa, 1982, 1987 Mercy Publishing/ Vineyard Music. Used by permission.