In an age when money, sports, work, politics, entertainment and possessions are doing a great job at taking the place of God, beliefs and relationships, it’s easy – fashionable even, to feel lost, bombarded and complacent. There are (literally) thousands of self-help books, blogs and celebrities ready to sell a version of happiness and success – so it seems easy to focus on the how.But, if we’re ever going to break from that cycle, we need to focus on the why. Why do we live, why do we believe, why do we seek and where do we find truth, lets talk about the why and then we can work on the how.

Why do we feel the need to explore? To conquer? To know danger? To venture into the wilderness or to expose ourselves to uncertainty? What makes a man set sail on open seas, chart a course into the wild, take a new job in another city, go in search of education or answers, help a friend in need, or pursue a woman?

And, why does it feel like we are called to adventure, commanded by it? Why do we sense that adventure is somehow mandatory, lest we shrink into obscurity and complacency?

Adventure is written into our souls.

“Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wilderness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man.” John Eldredge, author of Wild at Heart.

Eldredge claims, men are born uniquely with the desire for adventure, threaded into our very nature. But where did it come from? Something that I have learned through reading both the Bible and other books is how creative and intentional God is. He not only commanded adventure into our stories – but He wrote it into our souls. That something that compels us to go and explore, to “subdue” and experience the world he created. And, truthfully, I believe we die without it.

After creation, God gave man a blessing, a charge and authority to rule over the entire earth, to subdue it. Maybe God knew that the call wouldn’t be enough – so he gave us a wild world to adventure into. We seek and need adventure because God designed it, fashioned us for it and created a world for us to adventure in, it’s at the core of who we are, what we are and where we are.And, when we do what we’re designed to do – we come alive.