19.1 Defining Adventure

Did Jesus ever have fun? Did He ever do something for no other reason than the sheer joy of doing it? Did Jesus close His eyes to feel the wind blowing across His face? Did He skip a rock just to see how far it would go? Did Jesus horse around with His younger brothers? Did He create something in His step-father’s woodshop just for the pleasure of making something beautiful? Did Jesus get a kick out of giving something beautiful to His mother? Was Jesus human?

None of these things fit into our staid and religious “image” of Jesus. This is why images must be torn down. No, Jesus was not foolish, but He was certainly HUMAN.

Application and Analysis. This part of Symmorphy VI: Mankind is about what humans do out from being the likeness and image of God, that is, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are using Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning in the cognitive domain as a rough outline for this study. Knowledge of facts – Understanding – Application/Analysis – Judgment – Creation or Synthesis.

We are translating this layout, then, into “Human Living,” “Human Learning,” “Human Adventure,” Human Judgment,” and Human Creativity.” So how does “adventure” fit the application of knowledge and understanding to practical things and taking something apart to see how it all works together?

Adventure after Adventure. If, in my autobiography, I am leaving the impression that my life was just a passage from one difficulty to the next, I am doing my readers and myself wrong. Yes, there was one difficulty after another, with much pain, but much more than that, my life has been one wondrous series of adventures, adventure after adventure.

Now, the greatest adventure is to create something grand, most certainly, but adventure begins with that first opportunity to put what you know to the test. Application and analysis go together, for putting something together to see how it works and taking something apart to see how it works are both needed steps in discovery. And discovery is adventure.

Discovery. I am always taking the Word apart and putting it back together again. Why? A huge part of why I do such a thing is the sheer joy of adventure found in discovering new beauties that are God and that are my relationship with Him.

I like to read adventures equally with having them. My favorite book in all world literature is The Hobbit, because The Hobbit is one of the most masterful adventure stories ever written. I love the title of the first movie of The Hobbit – An Unexpected Adventure. Adventure often requires danger. Yet after Bilbo Baggins had braved all the dangers and returned home again, he dreamed of his adventure for 60 years and then – had to go back again. “Mountains, Gandalf, mountains. I want to see mountains again.”

God Likes Excitement. Read Psalm 18. You can’t say that a bit of adventure isn’t exciting to God. – And He rode upon a cherub, and flew; He flew upon the wings of the wind. – Excitement! – He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them. – Yeah!!! Take that, you dastardly foe!

We know that jokes are of God, for it was God who created the moose and the camel. Often, when Jesus arose in my heart restoring me into faith, He did so laughing for the sheer joy of being my Savior. – For the JOY set before Him. Yes, the cross was pain and even danger, but what about this? – Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2).

Adventure as Learning. The strength of my project-led learning pathway for middle school children is that it is a series of wondrous adventures. Serious judgment and creativity don’t really happen until the college level – and those things are supreme adventure. But at the middle school level, taking things apart and putting them back together again is just fun. And thus learning is how to have fun. Build a treehouse, raise some chickens, learn ballet, build a go-cart, explore the wild, go hiking with your dogs, make your own elvish cloak – all adventure at the beginning level, all the application of knowledge and understanding.

I am convinced that, since I have loved adventure my whole life, then God who made me like Himself loves it even more.

Going Out and Coming Back. What does adventure mean? The original root of the word means to go and to come. The second title of The Hobbit is “There and Back Again.” The English word covenant has the same root, meaning to come together.

But the concept of “adventure” places risk and danger upon going out and coming back. Jesus’ venture into the human experience most definitely included risk and danger – for He faced His foe and defeated him. Yet if Jesus was not at risk, then His salvation would have little relevance to us. We love Him because He dared everything for our sakes, to rescue us.

What Is the Risk? Jesus is continuously coming into us, carrying Father into us to become part of our lives. Jesus is continuously going out from us, carrying us into Father to be part of His life. Jesus’ service forever to us and to the Father is one big adventure, there and back again, for Him.

What is the risk? The risk is that Jesus cannot return into us without our permission; receiving our permission to enter is always exhilarating to Him. – If any man open the door, I will come in to him and we will dine [covenant] together. And the risk is that Jesus cannot return into the Father without taking all creation with Him. And that is even more exciting.

To carry creation restored back into God is absolute adventure.

Coming Back in Joy. I typically present the knowledge of God with tears. But if that’s all there is, we’ve missed the whole point. – When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad. Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126).

Go forth into risk, come back into JOY. – Adventure!

The Adventure of Knowing God. I do believe I have made my point.

One of the great adventures of my life was the going out into every part of my thinking to remove all the finest root hairs of that Satanic accusation against God that He knows evil, out from all my knowledge of God and of salvation. That task came to a turning point, just before “The Season of Symmorphy,” in that moment when “Sustaining all things by the Word of His power” first came into my definition of all created things. But writing these Symmorphy texts is adventure beyond all, going forth as Rivers and returning to Father at home, taking God apart and putting Him back together again. I have the funnest job on earth.

The Willingness to Make Mistakes. There is great adventure in learning, but only out from risk, that is, the willingness to make mistakes. Punishing mistakes is the most powerful tool there is to shut down learning. My writing course is designed to turn all student mistakes into the direction of glory and goodness. What if Bilbo Baggins had been punished for every mistake he made along the way? – There would have been no adventure and no story, only a nightmare. God has never “punished” me in my life; His actions towards me were only to prevent me from foolishly hurting myself. Much more, rather, He has joined with me to make all things good.

What is the most exciting experience there is for God? – To enter into a people who receive His Word, who believe that God is telling them the truth.

Better Than Before. Why are adventures so much fun?

Let me give an extended definition of glory. Glory is doing the thing you love to do better than you have ever done it before. Glory is putting every particle of your human capacity to the test and to come out singing. Of truth, even though directing the construction of the Graham River Tabernacle was one of the most glorious times in my life, directing the construction of Woody Crossin’s house at Bowens Mill was more fun, even though it was a bit smaller in scale, because it was the first time I got to do such a glorious thing. Both times I was at my limit inside what I loved to do and both times I did it really well.

I Seek Glory. And the singing of my heart was JESUS singing inside of and together with me!!! And everyone who participated knew it. Yet the evil of Nicene theology, accusing God of knowing evil, wanted to punish me afterwards, as if I had sinned.

God, who will return to each according to his works. To those that with endurance in good works are seeking glory, honor, and immortality – age-unfolding life… (Romans 2:5-7). I seek true glory, the supreme joy of Father with me, doing what we do best together; that’s why I am alive forevermore.

Yet hiking down a little stream in the mountains is also glorious to me, that is, a whole lot of fun. Why? – Because every turn in the flow of water over rocks is a discovery of new beauty.

Bringing Harmony. One of the things about adventure is that when you return home, home has greater value than you ever knew before. Setting creation free may be adventure, but Father at Home in our hearts is where the real glory lies.

But why are adventures so much fun? Let me describe a recent small adventure. I just put together an automatic watering system for my chickens. This was a kit, so there was no higher level creativity, but there was analysis and application, taking apart and putting together again. But it was the satisfaction of seeing the harmony of my chickens with good clean water, and the joy it clearly brought to them. It is the satisfaction of bringing harmony into our world, there and back again, that is the fun of adventure. Bilbo’s adventure was that he helped to restore home to his friends, the dwarves.

Our Job. And that’s the whole reason why God made humans and placed us inside of creation. Our job is to bring harmony into our world, to make all things good. – In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures evermore. Joy to the full till my cup runneth over, in Thy presence is fullness of joy.

The right hand of God is the throne. This is not sitting on clouds emitting “bliss.” This is synergeoing with God, making all things good. This is ADVENTURE! Adventure is so much fun because when we are doing what God made us to do, we are just like God.

The Right Hand of God. This lesson has no outline; rather, I’ve just gone from one thought to the next on a path of discovery. But let’s bring that last line into focus. – At Your right hand are pleasures evermore (Psalm 16:11).

The right hand of God is the throne. God created us to rule, to shepherd that portion of heaven-earth given to us, to bring harmony and wholeness among all things spiritual and physical. And to accomplish this great task, God gave us a heart just like His own, a heart made to contain God’s heart, His Mercy Seat.

That human heart, then, our hearts of flesh, are bent towards two things, ambition and extravagance. Indeed, God made us just like Himself.