I have to admit, I have perhaps the funnest and craziest staff team around! I received an update from one of our team members this week who has been on an incredible family adventure in New Zealand for a little more than 2 months and will be home in the near future ! The Esteb's have been living and breathing, exploring and learning, and experiencing life in ways that will affect them for the rest of their lives!

Lisa is the member of the Esteb clan that is on my staff, and as I have been following their adventure blog I have been thrilled to see what they have all experienced, and somewhat tried to live vicariously through them!

This week Curt, Lisa's husband, sent an email update with pictures of He and Lisa Bunji Jumping together! Take a look:

When I saw the pictures I said, "That is so awesome!" And then began to think how marriage and bunji jumping can be very similar. First, marriage can be a terrifying reality for so many people. It is unknown…we wonder will it work? will it hurt? what happens if something goes wrong?

We try to get all the information, equipment and pre-marital training we can before we take the leap, but always there is risk, always there is a sense of mystery and the unknown. Standing hundreds of feet on a small platform jutting out from a bridge affixed to a retractable springing cord brings up the same questions and the same rumble in the stomach! "Will I survive?" or "What if something goes wrong?"

Some people are to afraid to jump into marriage, or off the bridge, frozen by the "what ifs" of life or maybe memories of attempts that didn't land so smoothly. But many people have taken the leap and experienced an adventure that has grown them closer to each other and God.

To carry the metaphor a little further, I like how Lisa and Curt were tied together as they jumped… arms wrapped around each other, tightly I'm sure. It is in the hard times of marriage when life seems to be a free fall that you need to cling closer, tighter, as if your life depended upon it! Too often we experience our married life as two people, two agendas, held together by a ceremony or by the fact that we have children. That is radically different than making  a choice to bunji into life bound together not knowing exactly what may happen, but holding on and caring for each other passionately as you fly through the air of life! We need to regain the Biblical concept of marriage as a joint-adventure they way God graced Adam and Eve to experience each other and their life together.

Lastly, I see the bunji chord as the reality of God holding the marriage together throughout the adventures of life. A husband and wife can be secured to each other and still not make it. To simply tie yourself together and jump off a bridge saying "Love will help us survive" is not enough.

We need a divine bunji source in our lives and especially in our marriages. When we allow God to have first place in our marriage, and we have not only tethered ourselves to our spouse, but to God, we have a cosmic buffer that will show up just at the right time!

You still have to tether yourself to your spouse…You still need to walk to the edge of the platform…You still need to take a deep breath and jump into the unknown and begin hurtling through life…but when you are attached to the divine bunji, you won't smack the water, you will come close sometimes 🙂 but you will rebound back up.

So, are you approaching your marriage like a couple bound together on a bunji jump, or are you existing as a solo jumper wishing you could share more of who you are with the person you married?

Make a decision this week to tether yourself to your spouse and to God and let Him lead you on an adventure of a lifetime!

Thanks Curt and Lisa for giving us a metaphor of the adventure that is marriage!

Dei Gratia
Monty

I was meeting with some dynamic youth leaders on Monday this week (okay, you guys owe me for that great plug!) and as we were disecting and discussing various aspects of today’s youth journey, we were also discussing some key chapters out of a book by Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren called "Adventures in Missing The Point"

There was a statement made in the chapter about leadership that stuck with me. It was noted that in the church we have given the name/title of SEEKER to those people who are not believers in Christ yet, but are to some degree "looking."

The author noted that designation seemed to be wrong in that we are all seekers of Christ, and we continue to seek after Him even after we enter into relationship with Him.

How true. If we are no longer seekers after we become a Christian, in my mind, that would make us perhaps some of the biggest egomaniacs in the world. In essence we would be saying, "I’m done…I know it all..I have found God, I have Him all dialed in…game over.

After each movement of grace that I encounter and walk through with Christ, I am never done…but rather undone. Each time I get a glimpse or a revelation of another facet of God, I also see the vast areas that I have not yet begun to meditate on or graple with.

That actually excites me…to know that I will be on a seeking pursuit of God for eternity. Imagine if you lived out your marriage with the belief that you were done once you said your vows…Man how boring would that be. To think that you would know everything about your spouse after the wedding day is absurd…a healthy growing marriage is one where there is always mystery, wonder, pursuit and knowing.

So then, since we do not have God all figured out…What do you want to know about God? What questions do you have about following Christ? What areas of your faith bug you, have stumped you, frustrate you?

Honestly, you can shoot me an email or respond to this post. I’d love to know the areas you are seeking deeper experiences with Christ. Who knows, maybe it will become a series to unlock the doors of many others!

Illuminate Deo,
Monty
pastormonty@svaonline.com

I was wondering what you call a bunch of people who are getting salty with their lives…my best answer is saltines! Well, I just got a phone call from Scott Usselman, he told me that the team was assembled at the airport and ready to board for a salty adventure in Guatemala!

I will be praying for the team. When I hung up from my conversation with Scott, I was experiencing a humbleness in my heart. What an honor it is to be a part of a community that not only cares for those closest to them, but also for those who are different in so many ways, culturally, socially, politically, spiritually.

I am proud of each team that goes out from us…they bring back enlarged hearts and new vision, and they leave the peace and presence of Christ with those they encounter.

Right now, I sense God’s smile.

Illuminate Deo,

MC

I was wondering what you call a bunch of people who are getting salty with their lives…my best answer is saltines! Well, I just got a phone call from Scott Usselman, he told me that the team was assembled at the airport and ready to board for a salty adventure in Guatemala!

I will be praying for the team. When I hung up from my conversation with Scott, I was experiencing a humbleness in my heart. What an honor it is to be a part of a community that not only cares for those closest to them, but also for those who are different in so many ways, culturally, socially, politically, spiritually.

I am proud of each team that goes out from us…they bring back enlarged hearts and new vision, and they leave the peace and presence of Christ with those they encounter.

Right now, I sense God’s smile.

Illuminate Deo,

MC