“ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
— Philippians 4:8
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
— G.K. Chesterton
THE BLOWOUT ON THE TRAIL
This past weekend, we decided to take a simple family walk. You know, fresh air, stroller wheels on the pavement, sunshine through trees.
It sounded ideal.
But three kids under four don’t do ideal quite as often as they do chaos.
We made it a little over halfway before the dominoes started to fall.
My three-year-old felt it was too hot. Our two-year-old ditched her bike early, and I carried her and the bike, across most of the trail.
Then came the blowout. Nothing like a full wardrobe change under the wide open sky.
It wasn’t pretty. But somewhere along the trail, sweaty and tired, my wife and I laughed.
We began to talk about life, inconvenience, and adventure.
It reminded me of a quote I’d saved years ago from G.K. Chesterton
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.”
THE ADVENTURE WE WERE PROMISED
Adventure is a word we’ve glamorized.
Romanticized.
Packaged in documentaries and shown in curated feeds of mountaintop selfies and drone footage from Bali.
But real adventure, the kind that often shapes us most, rarely comes wrapped in the extraordinary.
It comes disguised as detours, delays, discomfort, diapers, and dead ends.
And when it shows up, it doesn’t feel like a highlight reel. It can at times, feel like a burden.
That’s because many of the truest adventures don’t make us feel powerful at first…they make us feel stretched.
When the car breaks down on the road trip.
When the hike gets rained out.
When the tent leaks.
When the meal burns.
When the plan fails.
That’s where the joy hides.
That’s where formation lives.
But only if you choose to see it that way.
THE DISNEY LIE
Culture has taught us that adventure should be loud, exciting, and flawless. That if it’s not worth sharing, it’s not worth remembering.
But life, especially life with God, doesn’t operate on the entertainment algorithm.
We want fireworks. He gives us formation.
We want magic. He gives us moments of mundane that demand a change in perspective.
We want spectacle. He gives us Spirit.
And the danger is that we can miss actual joy chasing a different version of it.
Philippians 4:8 tells us to think on whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent. But it doesn’t say those things will always feel obvious. Sometimes you have to fight to see what’s good.
You have to frame the chaos through the lens of joy. You have to choose to believe that inconvenience can be the beginning of transformation.
The problem isn’t the diaper blowout. Or the traffic. Or the toddler meltdown. Or the canceled plans. Or the interruption.
The problem is what we expected life to be.
JESUS AND THE UNCONVENTIONAL PATH
Jesus didn’t live a life that looked like the world’s idea of adventure. He didn’t travel for glory. He didn’t climb social ladders or build a brand. He didn’t take the shortcut or curate his image.
He was born into inconvenience.
He chose obscurity for 30 years. Was misunderstood by his family. Betrayed by his friends. Walked everywhere. Slept nowhere. Healed people who would never say thank you. Loved people who would never love Him back.
He saw adventure in the interruption.
Purpose in the mundane.
He turned fishermen into world-changers, meals into miracles, and funerals into resurrection celebrations.
The call to follow Jesus isn’t a call to glamour. It’s a call to grit. To deep, abiding joy that’s forged in daily faithfulness.
To find beauty in the unexpected.
A BETTER FRAME
Chesterton was right.
Your inconvenience might not change…but your frame can.
That toddler tantrum? It’s shaping your patience.
That frustrating coworker? It’s forming your gentleness.
That 3am wake-up? It’s molding your sacrifice.
That unpaid favor? It’s training your humility.
That uncelebrated decision? It’s solidifying your character.
Adventure isn’t the absence of resistance. It’s the choice to find God in the middle of it.
God doesn’t waste a single diaper. A single delay. A single disappointment.
A FINAL CHARGE
This week, you will be interrupted.
You will be delayed.
Disappointed. Frustrated. Exhausted.
And when you are, you’ll have a choice.
You can label it as a loss…
Or you can consider it, maybe for the first time, as adventure.
The life you want may not be waiting for you on the next vacation.
It may be hidden in the ordinary.
In the quiet faithfulness.
In the holy inconvenience.
Choose the better frame.
Let the Spirit rewire your expectations.
Let your kids remind you how to laugh when things go wrong.
Let God meet you on the trail with the diaper bag and the bike and the baby.
Because it’s not a detour.
It’s the road to life.
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