10th July

Endless Adventure

God makes me strong … sure-footed as a deer … keeps me safe on the mountains … trains me for battle. Psalm 18:32-34

The endless adventure of the Desert Christians was described like this:

Not that they beggared be in mind, or brutes,
That they have chosen a dwelling place afar
In lonely places: but their eyes are turned
To the high stars, the very deep of Truth.
Freedom they seek, an emptiness apart
From worthless hopes: din of the market place
And all the noisy crowding up of things,
And whatever wars on the Divine,
At Christ’s command, and for his love, they hate.
By faith and hope they follow after God,
And know their quest shall not be desperate,
If but the Present conquer not their souls
With hollow things: that which they see they spurn,
That they may come at what they don’t see,
Their senses kindled like a torch that may
Blaze through the secrets of eternity.
Paulinus of Nola

Life is meant to be an adventure; change is a gift that we have to learn to use aright. In Celtic folk tales a curse that could happen to a person was to enter a field and not to be able to get back out of it. To be stuck in that place for ever. It was seen as a definite curse to be unable to venture or change … The open gate is the opposite to this. It is the invitation to venture and to grow, the call to be among the living and vital elements in the world. The open gate is the call to explore new areas of yourself and the world around you.
David Adam The Open Gate

True religion is betting your life that there is a God
Donald Hankey

You who are heroic Love
Have built adventure
Into each day and into every life.
Help me to explore, to overcome, and to step out
Towards this day’s horizons
In the spirit of Christ the Endless Adventurer