Dear friends,
When Phil and I were travelling on the (very clean) Metro in Madrid recently, I noticed an advert pasted on the wall at one of the stations which proclaimed: ‘Otro dia, otra aventura’…. which in my limited Spanish I realised meant: ‘Another day, another adventure’. I thought how apt the saying was, because, at that time, we were certainly far from home, in a different country and experiencing new things every day – whether that was an unexpected sighting of a hoopoe or mountain vulture in flight… or standing and contemplating Picasso’s Guernica. For many of us being away from home often brings out our sense of adventure, however far we have travelled.
And that is so positive. It encourages a forward attitude to life and an openness to whatever might happen…. and as such it might also be quite a good way of looking at our journey of faith. Certainly people like Moses and Abraham (and countless others which you can probably think of in the Bible) found that following God led to previously unimagined adventures. Both of those men left home without knowing where they were going; both became leaders of many; and both trusted that whatever happened God was with them and had their back.
But of course, these are not the only adventures! Adventures can come in a whole variety of guises and sizes. We don’t have to go abroad or even risk everything in order to embrace the adventure of learning or exploring. God constantly calls us forward and into new areas of adventure in limitless ways – a chance conversation at coffee time, an unexpected phone call or email, a Bible study session, an article we might read or a permeating feeling we receive during silent prayer. God isn’t restrained by our being housebound or even feeling as fit as a fiddle… all God needs is our willingness to listen and watch and to hold life with the expectation that God is active and constantly desiring to be involved in our lives.
On June 8th Holy Trinity will be holding another congregational day entitled, very aptly: ‘The Next Adventure’. We are encouraged to give in a couple of photos beforehand and then bring along three objects which are significant for us, and about which we can start a conversation. It is a day in which we will discover more about each other and hopefully about ourselves too. This endeavour is healthy for our community – it is good for getting to know one another and it is also good for our faith. It is often said that the more we know ourselves, the closer we get to God. This is because God is our Creator, and the better we know ourselves the less we have to pretend to be someone we’re not… and the more we can become the person God desires us to be. Isn’t that one of the greatest adventures of faith?!
I hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us on ‘Our Next Adventure’. If it is not possible then I hope that whatever you are doing will be fruitful for you, enlightening and a wee adventure in itself. If we continue to follow the Spirit in this Pentecost (Trinity) season, I am sure we will be kept on our toes and stay young in spirit!
Whatever you end up doing this summer, happy adventuring!
With love, Liz
