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At a memorial service the other day the pastor described the deceased as one who loved adventure: “He liked to say, ‘If everything is under control, you aren’t going fast enough!'” Then the pastor quoted from The Hobbit the conversation that became the opening for my book Join the Adventure! I was inspired all over again, and I reproduce the book’s opening for you here:
In The Hobbit by J. R. R.
Tolkien, prequel to Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, the wizard, approaches
Bilbo Baggins:
Gandalf: I
am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s
very difficult to find anyone.
Bilbo: I should think so—in these
parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing
uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees
in them …
This is remarkably similar to a conversation
recorded in the Bible: an angel appears out of nowhere and challenges Gideon:
And the angel of the LORD appeared to him
and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
And
Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers
recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the
LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
And the
LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from
the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (Judges 6.12 – 14)
Bilbo and Gideon both said,
“Who, me?”
God has an adventure in mind for
all of us…for each of us—not a collective “we” in some general way but for
you, specifically. Is there anyone in your circle of friends, acquaintances,
neighbors, co-workers, etc., that has a need—a physical, emotional, or
spiritual need? If it’s a spiritual need, is there anyone in your circle who
doesn’t go to your church to hear your pastor preach? What do you think God’s
plan is that these people’s needs are met? Once, Jesus looked around and saw
people with needs:
And Jesus
went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every
affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9.35, 36)
What was Jesus’ solution to those
needs?
Then he said
to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into
his harvest.” (Matthew 9.37-38)
Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in
The Message,
“What a huge
harvest! How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!” The prayer
was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers
and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil
spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. (Matthew 9.37 –
10.1)
The solution is you and I, and we
need not feel any more qualified than Bilbo Baggins, Gideon, or any of Jesus’
twelve disciples, who, in Matthew 10, didn’t know much and hadn’t really been
trained to do much.