Experiences

Earlier this year, I referred to life as an adventure complete with dragon.

That is how I have come to see and experience life.

We do not serve a boring God. He is adventurous and sometimes life gets or feels kind of wild. 

(We are made in His image, right?  

So where did all this gusto and creativity 

hard-wired into our souls come from? 

Him!)

Unfortunately sin broke His ideal for us and not only are we born with His "personality" stamped in our souls -- we are also born with sin marking that and us all up. 

Which is where the dragons come in.

Dragons in us, dragons outside of us. 

Which definitely add to, heighten, and often complicate the adventure that is our life.

Another way to put all of this this has come to me in the form of this Gem:

My life. Your life. Our lives are going to look a little or a lot different from each others.

We've been shaped by similar or completely different experiences. Or sometimes some of each. 

And whatever our experiences have been -- they have influenced our thinking, our way of seeing and being in some way.

Something I like to do when I am up against a "dragon" is to ask myself what might be giving the dragon its force and power. And I look for how I can unplug it, overcome it, or at least temporarily lock it up, so I can keep moving forward. 

Some dragons make life-long appearances. Some dragons get de-powered and never rise again. But we learn how to fight them better and better with each encounter. Or, at least we can, through the power of Christ.

The major point in and of life is to grow closer and closer to the One in whose image we were originally created -- to grow into and toward the intended ideal for our souls.

And being mindful of the experiences we have gone through and how they have or may still be informing us are a key factor in experiencing that.