The New Frontier - Mini-Adventure

God's Greater Story

Have you ever thought about your life as a story?

A story that is playing out scene-by-scene, day-by-day, word-by-word? If you haven't, take a moment and consider it with us:

Before God made us, he plotted a story where we played an essential role. In the Garden, he invited us to play that role- to be image bearers and care for the world under his rule. But if you remember, we rejected the part of the story he had for us and turned toward a different one. The serpent, our main opposition from without, writes this new role for us, and in this part, we help him twist the world God made back into the chaos that existed before Creation.

In this role, we live imposter lives in smaller, less significant stories, where we must "make life work." Each day, scene, or word played out in our stories becomes a burden we have to carry. We hold the pen, frantically writing line after line to attain the life we "need." Unfortunately, we never find the REAL, LASTING life that Jesus promised- full of joy and goodness. And what's worse- the more we live in these smaller, imposter stories, the more we help the adversary twist the world into chaos and brokenness.

Since the fall, humanity has struggled in these smaller stories, but we no longer have to. The Call to Adventure is a call to relinquish control of the pen. It's a call to let God be the author of our story so he can write us back into his Greater Story- the story he plotted before Creation!

We become much more than we thought possible when we accept His call. The man you THINK you can be is nowhere near as good as the man God KNOWS you can be! He made us for more goodness, life, joy, beauty, fulfillment, and freedom. We find those things when we give him the pen of our life's stories and co-author our days with Him. In His story, we live from our true identity and walk His Path back into our Garden State, where we have close, trusting relationship with Him.

Remember, God restores us to our Garden State by taking us on many adventures throughout our Heroic Journey. On those adventures, we learn to co-author our stories with God, and they become the stories we get to tell our friends and family- the stories that showcase what a life with God can look like. Life to the full!

But the choice lies with us. Who will we allow to control the pen as the author in our stories? Will we give the pen to our Creator by taking our core heart questions to him, or will we take control by allowing other sources to become magnets?

Mini-Adventure Instructions

This month, we want you to try co-authoring a story together. This mini-adventure is a fun way of explaining what it looks like when we give God the pen of our lives versus when we give it to magnets like the opposition from within or without.

Go to a local park, take your journals and a pen.

Choose one person's journal.
Set a timer for seven minutes.
Son, choose a prompt from below; start the timer.
Read the prompt and write the following sentence in the journal.
Dad, read your son's sentence; write the next sentence.
Continue taking turns writing the following sentence until the timer goes off.
While you write, only read the previous sentence before you write your own. Don't go back and read the whole story.
Once you are finished, read the story aloud together.
Son, read your Dad's sentences; Dad, read your son's.
Whoever laughs first loses.
Choose a new prompt and do it again!
Whoever wins two out of three has to buy the other a smoothie or milkshake.

Story Prompts

You find a book entitled Write Your Life on your shelf. You think it's just another self-help book, but when you open it, you see the lined pages are empty, except one line, "Then, you…" You grab a pen and finish the sentence, "...had the power to fly". Suddenly, you are floating above the ground, the wind pushing you upwards. You...
While on a trip with friends, you stumble upon a lever in the woods. A sign hangs about the lever. It reads, "Pull and know what there is to know. Don't, and never come to woe." You place your hand on the lever and…
One day, you find a pair of shoes in your locker at school. They have a symbol of an ocean wave etched into their sides. They aren't yours but look cool, so you decide to wear them. You tie one on your foot. A soft, salty breeze blows in your face, and you can hear waves crashing around you. You feel the spray of the ocean. You reach for the other shoe and put it on…
One day, while sleeping, your brother enters your room. He wakes you up. As you turn over with sleep in your eyes, he hugs you and tells you he loves you. The next day, your brother vanishes. Four years later, as you and your family are packing to move to a new state, you stumble upon a box behind your dresser. It's old, with markings and words you can't make out. You open it, and the world around you changes like shifting sand. When your surroundings solidify, you are no longer in your room. You...
It's summer break. You and your family are on vacation in the West. You stop in a ghost town somewhere in Montana. Even though the town is now an attraction, you can't help but feel cold when you walk into each intricately decorated abandoned building. While walking from building to building, you notice a doorway that leads into a dark hallway. Your brother nudges you. You both start down the hall until it ends, revealing two staircases. One leads up, the other down. You...