We are studying security and adventure. They are the alternate beats of the Christian heart. Without security, adventure is precarious—often fatal; without adventure, security is poverty-stricken, often fatal. With both, life is alive—gloriously so.
There is another element, which if absent makes security and adventure both precarious—satisfaction. They “will go in and out and find pasture”; “and find pasture”—find satisfaction. If our security doesn’t feed us—meet our deepest needs; and if our adventure doesn’t feed us—meet our deepest needs, then we decay, perish from inner malnutrition. That is the trouble with mere money security—it leaves us with outer security, but with a sense of inner insecurity, of emptiness. Adventure without inner security is an adventure in futility. Halford Luccock tells of a grandchild on a merry-go-round who begged for another go at it each time it came to a standstill. When the grandfather’s patience and money were exhausted, the child got off reluctantly and said with a sigh, “I’d like to live on a merry-go-round all the time.” But with all the going, the child got nowhere; he went round in circles. I sat in a railway station at dawn and overheard a group of young married people who apparently had been “living it up” the night before. Their tempers were on edge and one woman said bitterly to her husband, “I’ve had enough of this.” They had adventure, but when they returned to their base of life it was nothing but bitterness and disillusionment.
THE PRAYER
In Jesus, we find pasture—our basic needs are satisfied. O Jesus, my Redeemer, Thou dost redeem us from our illusions. In Thee there are no kickbacks, no hangovers. There is more solid joy in Thee to the square inch than to the square mile outside of Thee. Am I grateful? Read my heart. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
Life for me is not going around in circles— it is driving toward goals.
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