Becoming Predictable
As I was driving this morning, I watched the cars. We all stayed in our lanes, signaled turns, stopped together, moved together. It occurred to me that it all seemed so mundane, predictable, mandated.
I wondered how it was that I became controlled in such a blasé form of exploration. The only places I could go is where others had gone before me. I remembered back to the days before I could drive. I had to walk. I would jump onto walls, balance along railway tracks, cut corners, go across fields blazing a trail through long, uncut grass. Every journey was an adventure and a discovery.
What if we were made to explore, to blaze a trail where others had not gone, and to go off the beaten path? Maybe this is why people have become fascinated by the Mars One exploration, and the possibility of a one-way journey to Mars to colonize the red planet.
God-Given Curiosity
What if that desire to explore and journey is God-given? And what if we will not be fully satisfied until we explore where no one else is able to go; in the three places that only we can go?
The First: What if our longing to explore is meant to lead us not out in space, but deeper within ourselves? For many people their own inner lives are largely unexplored. They are unfamiliar with their own hearts and fooled by their own self-deception.
The Second: What if the desire that drives us to unknown regions is the desire to explore the person, character and presence of the eternal God? No one has ever exhausted the depths of His being. There is always so much more of God to be known, but few take God up on His invitation to know Him in deeper and greater ways.
The Third: It is as we boldly explore the uncharted depths of self and God, that we find the third place of exploration spills out from the previous two. As we know who we are and who God is we are able to explore our place in God’s mission out into the world. Making Him know through our uniqueness and gifting.
Perhaps the urge to explore Mars and my restless impatience with traffic patterns point to greater exploratory adventures that God has already prepared for those who will journey with Him!