Blog 3366 – 01.20.2025

A New Experience, A New Adventure, A New Story To Tell

I believe that these lives we live are adventures in space and time and that our cultural obsession with acquiring things hinders us in the pursuit of happiness and often leads to such disappointment and boredom that we lose the thread of our own story.

There is quite a bit to unpack there, but today’s picture quote says it quite well, adventures not things are what thrill and inspire us. Even as children we learn that the thrill of getting the gifts we wanted for our birthday or Christmas is short-lived. Barely is the wrapping paper removed when we begin to grow bored with that new toy which is all too soon relegated to the ever growing pile of no longer played with toys. The stated goal of life, to die with the most toys, is a very shallow unsatisfying one.

Adventures that we have experienced, on the other hand, continue to excite us each time we remember them and the telling and retelling of those stories helps us to not only hold on to the thread of our own story, but to appreciate the stories of others as well.

History, his-story or her-story, is what we are here to make, and not just to consume and to acquire so many things that like the “Barn loser” in the New Testament parable we think we must tear down our barn and build a newer, better, bigger one to hold all our stuff. God calls that “foolish.”

I believe that the cure for boredom is not some new thing, but a new experience, a new adventure, a new story to tell. I also think that the root cause of disappointment and boredom is not as some would have us believe, unrealistic expectations, but rather, resistance to change. Someone has defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. When did acquiring a new shiny thing ever bring anything more than momentary and fleeting pleasure? Oh, but a new and exciting experience that is what great stories and great lives are made of.

So put your toys away or better yet give them away as Jesus advised the young rich ruler and hear and heed the voice of adventure calling, “Come dance with me, come ride with me, come fly with me , come.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White