{"id":661,"date":"2021-04-21T07:50:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T11:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=661"},"modified":"2021-04-21T07:50:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T11:50:32","slug":"missing-the-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/21\/missing-the-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing the Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When I was 10 years old, the coach of my summer softball team spoke to me some of the most heartening words I have ever heard.

\u201cYou have been chosen to be on the All-Star team. And the other coaches and I have been talking, and we want you to be the starting pitcher.\u201d It just doesn\u2019t get much better than that for a 10-year-old boy.

But I was terrified.  All I could imagine was failing.

When game day arrived, I told the coach I had fallen off my bike. Yeah, that\u2019s it. I had a serious injury that would prevent me from standing out there on the mound in the All-Star game.

My coach knew I wasn\u2019t telling the truth. I can still remember the look of sadness and compassion on his face when he failed to talk me out of my fear and handed the ball to someone else.

I have replayed that scene in my mind for more than a half century now \u2013 not that it\u2019s had any kind of lasting impact on my psyche.

I made absolutely sure I didn\u2019t fail by failing to try.<\/em>

Gary Haugen, who leads the International Justice Mission \u2013 an organization devoted to rescuing people unjustly imprisoned, enslaved, or trafficked \u2013 describes the heartbreak of \u201cgoing on the journey but missing the adventure.\u201d

Haugen points out that trusting God is usually advertised as a glorious and risky journey where we strike blows against the world\u2019s principalities and powers. But instead of storming the gates of hell, most of us settle for taking notes in the margins of our Bibles and experimenting with chicken casserole recipes for the next church pot luck.

As Gary puts it in his book Just Courage<\/em>: \u201cFollowing Jesus was supposed to be a bold adventure of power and beauty and singular importance\u2026 Earnest, gifted, mature Christians feel as if they are all dressed up but have no place to go.\u201d

There\u2019s no shortage of challenges. And Americans, on average, have more opportunities, better technology, and more discretionary income than anyone else on Earth to bless others.

But when it comes to making a difference for those who live on life\u2019s margins, all too many of us make sure we don\u2019t fail by failing to try.

Where do we start?  Start somewhere<\/em>.

As Saint Mother Teresa put it: \u201cNever worry about numbers.  Help one person at a time.  And always start with the person closest to you.\u201d

Just as important: Decide to show up<\/em>.

In other words, go stand on the mound with the ball in your hand and risk looking stupid.

Looking back, we won’t want to have to face the fact that we went on the journey but missed the adventure.
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When I was 10 years old, the coach of my summer softball team spoke to me some of the most heartening words I have ever heard. \u201cYou have been chosen to be on the All-Star team. And the other coaches and I have been talking, and we want you to be the starting pitcher.\u201d It just doesn\u2019t get much better… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,205,111],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-courage","tag-fear","tag-serving-the-poor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}