Last January I was traveling back from my first trip to Brazil, and I had a layover in the Sao Paulo airport. As I was sitting in the waiting area for the flight to board, I noticed a young man who was crying. I'm not talking about a few tears streaming down his face; I literally mean this kid was sobbing uncontrollably. Interestingly enough, I had noticed him outside of the security area saying goodbye to a group of people who looked to be his family. My best conjecture is that this young guy was heading to the United States as a foreign exchange student and had just said "goodbye" to his family for the first time in his life; a wave of emotion had hit him (fear, sadness, uncertainty, etc.), and he couldn't control himself. I looked at this teenager and was prompted to go ask if I could pray for him. However, instead of following the prompting in my spirit, I came up with a list of reasons why that would be a bad idea and how I would look foolish for doing such a thing. I really believe the Holy Spirit was prompting me that day to talk to this kid, but I didn't follow through because I was afraid of the ADVENTURE. How often do we miss those opportunities in life? How often do we ignore the promptings to say something or to do something? At least for me, I'm very good at making excuses as to why I shouldn't do this or that. But what if I stopped making excuses? What if I gave God the opportunity to show up? What if God was giving me this opportunity to see how enormous He is. What if God wanted to do something incredible through me that day and I missed the opportunity? I can't help but think that God's presence in my life would be more visible if I was willing to be more ADVENTUROUS. ADVENTURE doesn't mean moving to another country; it simply means following the promptings we receive from God rather than allowing fear to overcome them. When we live a life of ADVENTURE, we see the presence of our loving, heavenly Father.
About Seth
Seth is a pastor, author, and speaker who lives in Batesville, Indiana. He is married to Kari, and they have two daughters, Madelyn and Noelle.
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