Adventure involves unpredictability and unpredictability leaves the door open to risk. The Bible has many examples of God trying to do a good thing but his people having a difficult time getting to “yes.” Despite some good reports, the children of Israel got stuck on the wrong side of the river, refusing to accept God’s provision of Canaan. They couldn’t get to “yes.” God wanted to show mercy to the inhabitants of Nineveh, but Jonah, God’s intended vehicle of mercy, was having a terrible time getting to “yes.” Mordecai pleaded with Esther to intercede for her people by going to the king, but she immediately saw risk and a barrier. God was trying to help Peter see the extension of redemption using an object lesson, but when told to eat of the food in the sheet, he refused, saying nothing unclean had ever passed his lips. God wants to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites, but Gideon responds in fear nine times. He has a hard time getting to “yes.”
Which brings us to Moses. God desires for the Israelites to be free from the tyranny of Egypt. He has handpicked His man and it is Moses. But five times Moses resists getting to “yes.”
“Where faith meets adventure” is part of the ethos—the culture—of YTI. Here we have a champion, the Lord, who urges us on into spheres previously thought unreachable. We lay down the impulse to disqualify ourselves, and rise to a God who shows vast loyalty to His callings to us.
How do we get ourselves to “yes?” It appears that most of the time the adventurous life needs a champion. It is not an isolated venture. Paul, Mordecai, God. Always the voice of another. Do I give privileged voice to such people in my life … and God, most of all?
But wait. There is one more important feature. It is not adventure for adventure’s sake. Take another look. In each of those we mentioned, it was a new direction that made it an adventure. The Israelites from slavery to an independent nation. Esther from a passive queen to an ardent defender of her people. And Moses. A husband with a family and a herd of livestock in a secluded corner of the world, to center stage against the greatest military power in the world, and leading a group to become a nation.
The biggest yeses are always about new directions.