Trekking Through the Adventure

I think most of us would like to be described as adventurous and would say that we are open to adventure. To be adventurous sounds youthful, exciting, attractive, and full of life.

However, I think that we usually forget the long, drudgerous, exhausting, desperate, discouraging, and at times painful road to Mordor. Bear with me. I am a literature teacher. Before I began cancer treatment, I was in the thick of a beautiful year of the Inklings and, of course, The Lord of the Rings. 

What makes a journey adventurous is the measure of risk, the capacity for danger, and the number of new experiences. 

For a story to truly be adventuresome means to undertake great peril. Indeed, the closer one comes to absolute failure, if not demise, the greater the adventure. We like to romanticize adventure and forget this part. We like to focus on the hero carrying the wounded up the mountainside to glory, not the betrayal that led to that moment. But without the betrayal, the hero could never display such heroism. 

Cancer is hard. I know I said I am not letting go of my peace and I'm not. 

But there are hard days. Days when I wonder if I will ever feel like myself again, look like myself again. Days when I feel so sick and exhausted and like there will never be anything to look forward to again. Days when my hair is falling out by the handful and I wonder if I will ever feel beautiful or like myself in my own body again. Days of mind crushing boredom because I just don't like television that much but don't have the energy for anything else.

This is it. This is the muddy trek through the muck and mire of Lent, through life. There are really low lows. 

Somehow, that seems to make us think that we are doing it wrong, that we are off track. But this IS the track and has been since Eden. Again, going back to that verse from my last post; in this world, you WILL have tribulation. The tribulation isn't a sign that you've missed the mark, but in fact, is THE mark of a Christian and all of us living in a broken world.

Everyone has their stuff. We do. Jesus did. Even that person who seems to be living your dream life has their really low lows. 

We are together in our lows, in our transgressions, in suffering, in death even. 

We are also together in hope. And what would hope be if there was no suffering? What would we be hopeful for? 

Just as the betrayal of Frodo brought the glorious climb of Mordor to save all of the world from certain doom, so too the betrayal of Adam against his Creator brought the fall of humanity, so too the kiss of betrayal of Judas brought the torture and excruciating death of our Beloved, and so too did such betrayals bring our glory, our salvation, our King. Without the betrayal, there isn't much of an adventure, let alone a happy ending. 

How the scope of life changes if we choose to see it as an adventure. Cancer becomes a bump in the road with mere trials and setbacks rather than conclusions. 

I share this with you on the First Sunday of Lent because it was on my heart, but also to get real. When we share our lives in an authentic way with sincere hopes and real challenges, we are cheering one another through the race. We can say, "Yeah, this is hard, but I can do it and so can you. Keep the course. Don't give up. I've got your back."

I know there are so many of you who have my back. Thank you. I've got yours too. I am thankful for your prayers and I am also praying for you.