Living An Adventurous Life

Millennials are known for craving it, whether it is living in a van, tiny house, or quitting their jobs all together to travel. Our social media is riddled with stories of people who have chosen to live adventurously. They appear to risk everything to step out and bring excitement to their life. We all admire these lifestyles but have we disqualified ourselves from an exciting life? 

I believe we all crave adventure. Although we may all agree with this statement, we become comfortable with our mundane lives. This very comfortability leads to us forgetting the potential that our lives hold. So we find it easier to live our lives through others and various forms of media finding a false sense of satisfaction through other’s experiences. We no longer need to travel and experience the world because we can scroll and “see the world” through the lens of a famous Instagrammer.  When we feel a pull towards adventure, we find a film that will appease us but never fully satisfy the craving to break free from a life that we have allowed to plateau. We are content with counterfeit replacements for everything that makes our lives beautiful and filled with meaning. We need to live intentionally, not allowing ourselves to become complacent, but living with purpose.

After High School I decided to take a year off so I would be able to work and finally choose a career path to follow, determining the type of education I would pursue. But then I was introduced to the idea of a DTS (Discipleship Training School), three months of training and three of global outreach. At first I dismissed the idea, because attending would mean that I would not be able to work and earn money for school and I would not be able to go to university that fall, since I would be attending the DTS. But God calls us to leave fear behind and to live a life of risk, to follow him. In my DTS I learned that without risk we can’t have faith, because if there is zero risk there is no need for belief in anything.

Because I took the first step to apply for my DTS I have been to three continents, attended a leadership school, and now work in full time missions in the most influential city in the world, Los Angeles. My life has stopped following the plan that I had so precisely placed, and I am able to give up my narrow focused dreams for things I could never imagine. During my DTS I was taught to live each moment ready for what God has planned, and his plans are good. At the end of High School, living in California and being a missionary would not be my first guesses at where I would end up, but God has incredible plans for us.

We need to be willing to say yes, God has great plans for our lives, but if we are distracted by the lives of others, then we miss the opportunities that God presents us with. We need to trust that God will guide us through our lives and through the adventure that can be full of risks. When we are open to letting God use our lives to add to the story of all humanity we are able to leave a life of complacency and step into one filled with excitement. We can allow fear to paralyze us and stop us from moving forward, or we can trust that life is worth the risk, and God will carry us through. Will you choose to continue to scroll, or will you trade in the mundane for the extraordinary?

Written by Alex Barber