As a boy Sunday afternoons looked a lot alike from week to week.
Dad was a pastor so he always wanted a big dinner at noon on Sundays after he had had a busy, hectic morning. The fare was most often something with meat and potatoes.
After dinner dad would usually take a nap for a while and when he woke up we would do some kind of family activity.
One of dad’s favorite things to do was get in the family station wagon and go for a drive. Often, we would end up at a relative’s home in another town but sometimes dad just liked to drive and find roads we’d never been on before. He loved the adventure of unexplored territory.
On one Sunday as we cruised down the highway he saw a sign for “Sherwood Forest.” Dad said that was a road worth exploring.
Since we had gone past it too quickly to enter we had to turn around a go back. As we turned in it started to rain very gently. After a hundred yards or so the road turned to gravel. What had seemed to be open space quickly did turn to forest with trees all around.
With the rain and the trees it suddenly seemed darker than it actually was. It reminded me of the characters in the Wizard of Oz as they walked through the dark, dark forest.
I remember someone saying, “Maybe we should turn around.”
Deeper and deeper we went into the woods. Darker and darker it seemed to get all around us. Dad turned on the headlights. Even if we wanted to turn around I’m not sure if there was enough room to do so.
On the road in front of us we could see what appeared to be two small puddles in the ruts of the gravel road. As we approached them dad slowed to a crawl. The front tires went through fine but you could tell the puddles were much deeper than we had thought.
As the back tires entered the puddles we could hear the back end of the station wagon scraping the road. Suddenly, we were stuck. The back tires spun in the mud. Dad tried to put it in reverse and back out. Not a chance. We were not going anywhere.
Dad decided to get out of the car and walk for help. As he left mom tried to tell us everything was going to be fine but as she talked I’m sure I saw the scary monkeys from Oz surrounding our car in the trees. My brothers and I each chimed in with various disasters that were about to befall us.
I’m not sure how long dad was gone but it seemed like hours. Finally, a tractor headlight appeared behind us. Dad jumped off the side of the tractor where he was hanging on and came to tell us about the man he found to get us out.
The farmer hooked some chains up to the front of the car. Slowly and gently he pulled us out.
Dad found a place for us to turn around and we headed out of Sherwood Forest back into the light and into civilization.
As we pulled into the driveway dad said with a smile on his face and all the sincerity in the world, “Wasn’t that fun!”
Things didn’t turn out the way dad thought they would that day. However, dad was still able to see the fun and the adventure of the afternoon.
Dad had the courage to head into the unknown and have things change the course of the day. He knew the likelihood of anything really bad happening was almost non-existent.
What challenge do you have facing you right now that really is an adventure in the making? Maybe it’s a challenging conversation with a customer or a co-worker or a boss. What’s the worst that could happen?
There are people all over the globe facing life-changing events every moment. In our culture we have made first world problems far bigger than they deserve to be.
What will you do this week to challenge yourself and bring a bit of adventure into your life?
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
