7 – Dare to Adventure

By DANNY GUTIERREZ

 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” (James 1:2)

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I booked our 10th year wedding anniversary at a monastery in a remote suburb of St. Paul. It still takes me a full minute to remember to chuckle about the whole thing because I’m still confused as to why I thought it would be a great idea.

Solitude. Romance. Passion. Retired nuns.

It’s obvious that I did not think the whole thing through to the end. In my defense, I had said yes to the invitation to go stay at the monastery for two compelling reasons; first, because I had imagined a remote place up in the Alps that had majestically old architecture built into nature’s arms, and empty stone hallways with candles flickering and Bose speakers gently playing the soundtrack of the movie “Nacho Libre.” It must have sounded Latin enough (like my heritage), and somewhat naughty (like my plans), and divine (like the memories I’d always hoped our 10th year anniversary would hold). The second reason was because it was entirely free, and we were young church planters at the time who had invested every last dime of our savings into pioneering a new church. So free made just about everything sound divine.

Adventure is a loaded word, in any context really. Loaded with expectation, risk, and unexpected twists and turns. It’s the impulse to buckle into the seat of a memory-making machine which we can only hope takes us somewhere fantastic and worth remembering. Perhaps that is why it’s an exciting thing to invite adventure into our lives and relationships, because it breaks up the monotonous and the predictable and moves us to the edge of our seats once again.

But in saying yes to adventure, it’s not if, but when we find ourselves wondering what the heck we got ourselves into…even if it was free. It reminds me of the words we find in James 1:2 (NLT) “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy…” I’m going to say from personal experience that this Biblical admonishment is tough to do when you are standing in the cafeteria line of a retirement home for female religious workers while being stared at by 40 white-haired and grinning nuns. I’ve never felt more male and non-white and out of place in my life.

Consider it an opportunity for great joy? I wish I could have said that to my wife that first night. (Yes, we stayed a weekend! Don’t judge us.) My wife is an introvert. I had convinced her of my “epic” idea of anniversary fun at a monastery by painting a very different picture than the one we were living at that moment. Sister Phoebe of the Marsh was in her third long story of students she had back in 1935 as my wife simply pushed the saltless canned green beans back and forth across her square lunchroom plate, expressionless and staring right at me.

Friends, in adventure the many trials are real and they can come in many ways. Delayed flights. Tents that leak. Hotel rooms with no AC. Travelers diarrhea. Emergency room visits. Fights in the rental car about directional ineptness. Dashed expectations.

But the cool thing about the verse is that it didn’t just end with the prospect of great joy, it goes on to say, “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

When what we believe gets put to the test, we are given a chance to grow. And adventure in marriage really has a unique way of providing us with those tests, in particular the ones that remind us of what we really believe of each other. The adventures that turn out like NatGeo documentaries, no doubt, but also the ones that go up in flames can all contribute to marriage memories that last and do good.

It’s now forever part of our love story. We celebrated our 10th year wedding anniversary at a monastery. And we figured out how to enjoy one another, and have fun, and be somewhat naughty, and make friends with a bunch of darling old ladies who love Jesus and who we will see once again someday in heaven.

Hopefully that is the goal of all of our adventures. To renew our faith in the love our spouses have for us, and grow in our own determination to love them better.

 

TALK ABOUT IT

What adventures have you already experienced together that are forever part of your story?

What new perspective can you gain for the unexpected every-day adventures you often face?

Start a bucket list of adventures you would love to experience together.

 

 

Danny & Stephanie Gutierrez are both from the Twin Cities and they now serve as missionaries at a church called Camino de Vida in Lima, Peru. You can connect with them at www.modernday.org