The sun was bright, the air clear. I could see for miles.
Wind whistled in the pines below and across the rocky wasteland above the tree
line. We’d reached the summit.
Settling back in a rocky nook, shoulders braced against the
wind, I stretched sore muscles and looked out across the snaky, blue line of
mesas rising from yellow plains far below. And, per usual when smacked in the
face with soul-stirring beauty, I started wondering.
Why do we climb mountains?
Why do we jump out of airplanes, scale cliffs, fall in love,
or move across country? Why in the world do we get excited about viewing the umpteenth
season of “Lost”? And why do we read heroic tales more often than the quiet
biographies of bankers or dentists?
Let’s face it: most of us enjoy adventure. We desire it. We
respect those who encounter it.
But why? Is it for the rush, the thrill? Or something
deeper?
I’ve heard there is a correlation between the good desires
in a man’s heart and God’s character. Man strives to create because God is
Creator. He wants to love because God is Love. He grows angry at evil and
injustice because God is Righteous and Just.
But what makes him climb trees?
Is it the desire for hands-on knowledge? God certainly created
a natural world ripe with opportunity for that kind of adventure. The wild presents
us a challenge: Come and find. Its beauty is hidden from the lazy and revealed
to those who seek. We are the earth’s stewards, and the mountains, rivers,
jungles, and deeps are ours to be traversed, discovered, charted, shared. But
the elements are not tame. Aslan’s country is undomesticated. Though it is good. Man’s relationship with Nature
walks the tightrope of barely-averted disaster as the great unknown is made Known.
And the thrill of success is sweet.
Revelation is part of the thrill, and most of the sweetness.
Creation reveals the Creator. In bright, sharp moments of beauty, He lets Himself
be known by us.
So part of our delight in adventure is explained. At least
the past concerned with spectacular views and glorious sunsets. But what of the
other part? The part disassociated with the final view from the mountaintop,
the part where our foot slips on the journey upwards, and with an unexpected,
humming surge of energy we scramble and fight our way back onto the path. The
part where we laugh, stunned, exhilarated, with knees trembling. The part where
life is suddenly more lovely because it was almost lost.
Adrenaline is exciting. But is it godly?
Scripture certainly abounds with cliff-hanger moments. And God
has authored more righteous and raucously adventurous lives than I can count on
all the fingers and toes of my extended family combined. Noah, Martin Luther,
Esther, Amy Carmichael, these hero-stories are full of twists and turns and
unexpected endings. At the very least, it’s evident adventure can push men towards godliness. Only eternal
perspective keeps the eye focused, the hand steady, and the heart merry on the
wild bronco-back of adventure. Hope is an anchor for the soul.
But pain and suffering teach the same lesson. And last time
I checked, we haven’t exactly been commanded to go looking for those.
So let’s recap. Here’s my quandary: if desire for and
enjoyment of adventure is godly, it must be after God’s heart. And if it’s
after God’s heart, it’s after his character. And if it’s after his character,
God must be adventurous.
So is he?
My first response was to say no. The Word is plain: God
isn’t a thrill-seeker. God isn’t reckless or unstable. He is Good. In him there
is no variation or shadow due to change.
But he did enter a fight to the death for the sake of love
and glory.
Christ reclaims creation. The Father causes order to rule
over chaos and the Spirit breathes life into dust. Mountains bow before our God,
for they offer no height he cannot reach. The seas boil at his passing, for he
alone knows the secrets of their depths. Evil flees from his presence, and God
laughs in the face of the wicked as they are scattered by the might of his arm.
He rides on the wings of the storm to the defense of his beloved. He cast the dark
angel from the pinnacle of heaven and he crushed the serpent’s head. And he has
defied death in the greatest rescue ever recorded.
Why did the righteous man climb a tree?
For the joy set before him.
And we, his children? We climb because we’ve been given
dominion, the permission to trespass. Every step upward is training, our soul
taking our flesh in hand and demanding greater excellence. And when we reach
the top, we survey creation, we rest, and the rest is sweet. We have faced
untold dangers. We have defied death. We have become like Him.
