~Holy Adventure~
Today is Monday, January 25. Tomorrow Mike and I leave for Cuba. There will be no telephone calls, no texting and no email. By the time you read this (for those of you who do read the Caller – thank you), we will likely be on the way home or home.
It is both a strange and wonderful state of being to be disconnected from the technology that has come to determine how one’s day is spent. Cuba is still in many ways unconnected electronically with the rest of the world. I cannot put off preparing worship, Caller and more and send it with the click of a “button”. So here I am pondering what to ‘pen’, even though I’m not using a pen: antiquated technology.
There is trepidation any time I leave home. Do you ever feel that way? Or do you relish the thought of stepping into the unknown. I suppose both are important ways of learning; both are valid 
adventures. Abram and Sarai were called by God to leave what and who they knew to go to a foreign land, giving thanks to God along the way. Ruth felt called to stay in a foreign land with Naomi. Jesus told the Geresene demoniac to go back home, to stay in place. Eli told Samuel to listen to God who spoke to him inwardly. So many different paths for holy adventure: all of the people really quite ordinary. Their stories remind us that our lives are also filled with the possibility of holy adventure.
Our lives are holy adventures. There is no right or wrong path, but many paths. Sometimes there are detours and sometimes we watch and cheer others on their own adventure.
We return just before the season of Lent. Mike and I are returning from an adventure that has yet to be lived. On the beforehand side of it, I hope all of us on the journey
- live from gratitude whatever trials we encounter
- find among our hosts brothers and sister in faith
- learn from our hosts more of what it is to minister by staying in place and
- listen for God who speaks to each of us inwardly.
On the after-hand side of it, I hope all of us will journey together through Lent, discovering our own Holy Adventure. Whether you are 9 or 90, God is working in your life and through your life so join in this time of reflection, sharing and serving.