I am convinced that the only life worth living is one of ADVENTURE. But being an adventurer means that often we will seem to fail. In exploring the canyon country of the spirit, we sometimes find ourselves caught in a box canyon, and realize that we have to retrace our steps. But that kind of backtracking is always an element of any true adventure. There are many times when we will need to DIE to the need to feel successful, safe, secure, or even right. Because others will often accuse us of being wrong or foolish, we will need to die especially to a reliance on the favorable opinions of others. But this experience of death is simply the flip side of our quest for adventure. After all, the inner life of the Creator is based on both adventure and risk. As theologian John Cobb says, "God's own life is an adventure, for the novel enjoyments that are promoted among the creatures are then the experiences providing the material for God's own enjoyment . . . God's life is also an adventure in the sense of being a RISK, since God will feel discord as well as beautiful experiences. The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic Beauty." This tragic element involves all of the failures and deaths that God experiences within an evolving world that is striving continually to manifest Beauty. If God's own life involves the risk that is an inherent element of a world based in freedom, novelty and surprise, then we too can find the strength we need to take the risk of adventurous living. What other kind of life is worth living?
Photo: Pasqueflowers appear out of the dead grasses of winter; Horsetooth Mountain Park, CO; March 30, 2013
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