Discovery

Tonight my imagination was awakened, and I found myself wondering how Christopher Columbus felt when he ran into land and realized what he had discovered.  Disappointment?  Exhiliration?  Fear?  Curiosity?

Possibility or predictability?  Most of us live between these two worlds.  Something new or something proven?  Asia with its previously discovered riches, or a new world where possibility rules?

Where do you fall on the spectrum between possibility and predictability?  Do you ever wake up and wonder what new discoveries might be made in a day?

Saul mounts his donkey and sets off toward Damascus.  His mind is made up about this Jesus legend.  There's a rumor spreading that He's alive.  No way.  Impossible.  He was crucified.  That rumor needs to be silenced.  But somewhere along that road Saul makes a discovery that changes his life forever.  Jesus isn't dead after all.

Questions that can't quite be answered.

Expectations that can't quite be met. 

Assumptions that can't quite be proven.

What emotions do these things stir in you?  If they make you a little nervous, or a bit tentative, it's probably safe to conclude you're human.  But are you willing to risk the unknown for the reward of some jaw-dropping, eye-opening, life-altering discovery?

I think the above uncertainties create an inevitable restlessness that can only be escaped by making a tragic decision to forfeit all sense of destiny and...

settle.

I'd rather learn to ask alot of questions.  I'd rather come to expect the unexpected.  I'd rather have courage enough to acknowledge that some of my assumptions will probably turn out to be wrong.  If none of these words make any sense to you, that's okay.  I'll try to post something else again soon:)  But if some of them echo with your thoughts consider renewing this commitment today:

I won't run from questions.

I will risk unmet expectations.

I will challenge my assumptions.

Funny thing about God.  He could tie the future in a pretty bow and present it to me in a beautiful package of predictability.  But He doesn't.  He lets some of my questions go unanswered.  He lets some of my expectations go unmet.  He lets some of my assumptions wind their way toward discoveries.

Maybe some day I'll find my journey toward Asia interrupted by a world I didn't know existed.  In the courage of this moment I kind of hope so.

Comments

[Jamie Schneider]

I saw your article in the SAGU magazine. It is great what you are doing in Detroit!

[Jamie Schneider]

Oooops. I am a dork! I read your article in the Pentecostal Evangel, not SAGU magazine. Sorry, I got both of them in the same day :)

[jordan]

do chris and niki bradshaw still work at ur church? if so - do u have a current address for them?