{"id":638,"date":"2019-04-02T17:30:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T23:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=638"},"modified":"2019-03-30T19:51:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T01:51:35","slug":"join-the-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"Join the Adventure!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[To follow The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/a> I was inspired all over again, and I reproduce the book’s opening for you here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Hobbit by J. R. R.\nTolkien, prequel to Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, the wizard, approaches\nBilbo Baggins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gandalf: I\nam looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it\u2019s\nvery difficult to find anyone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bilbo: I should think so\u2014in these\nparts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing\nuncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can\u2019t think what anybody sees\nin them \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is remarkably similar to a conversation\nrecorded in the Bible: an angel appears out of nowhere and challenges Gideon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the angel of the LORD appeared to him\nand said to him, \u201cThe LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nGideon said to him, \u201cPlease, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this\nhappened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers\nrecounted to us, saying, \u2018Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?\u2019 But now the\nLORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the\nLORD turned to him and said, \u201cGo in this might of yours and save Israel from\nthe hand of Midian; do not I send you?\u201d   (Judges 6.12 \u2013 14)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bilbo and Gideon both said,\n“Who, me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God has an adventure in mind for\nall of us…for each of us\u2014not a collective \u201cwe\u201d in some general way but for\nyou, specifically. Is there anyone in your circle of friends, acquaintances,\nneighbors, co-workers, etc., that has a need\u2014a physical, emotional, or\nspiritual need? If it\u2019s a spiritual need, is there anyone in your circle who\ndoesn\u2019t go to your church to hear your pastor preach? What do you think God’s\nplan is that these people’s needs are met? Once, Jesus looked around and saw\npeople with needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Jesus\nwent throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and\nproclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every\naffliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they\nwere harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9.35, 36)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was Jesus’ solution to those\nneeds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he said\nto his disciples, \u201cThe harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;\ntherefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into\nhis harvest.\u201d (Matthew 9.37-38) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in\nThe Message,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a huge\nharvest! How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!\u201d The prayer\nwas no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers\nand sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil\nspirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. (Matthew 9.37 \u2013\n10.1)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution is you and I, and we\nneed not feel any more qualified than Bilbo Baggins, Gideon, or any of Jesus\u2019\ntwelve disciples, who, in Matthew 10, didn’t know much and hadn\u2019t really been\ntrained to do much. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Join the Adventure!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-ai","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}