“I can just see them: spellbound, wide-eyed, mouths gaping and minds whirring.  People of varying occupations, ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds who had one thing in common – they had never heard anything like they were hearing from the unkempt, long-haired mountain man who was leaning back in his chair, gazing into space, describing a remote mountain scene he claimed to have seen with his own eyes.  He told of a place where the mud bubbled, the air smelled like rotten eggs, deep blue-green pools of water nearly boiled and streams of water unpredictably jetted higher than the trees – and all this smack dab in the middle of frozen patches of ice and snow. At first his audience was amazed, even mesmerized, but soon many became skeptical.  Why? Because they had never seen anything of the sort.” (Unexplained, John Hanson, 2017)

It was later proven that John Colter was telling the truth. What he told the world about in 1806 is now seen and enjoyed by millions of people, each year, as they visit Yellowstone National Park. He experienced it as an adventurer. He was on the forefront of the American frontier. If someone like him had never ventured into the unknown, it would still be unknown.

We, too, are pushing into a frontier. The last few years have been challenging – to say the least. Almost everyone in the world has seen and experienced things they didn’t expect. We have survived (and possibly grown) in spite of the difficulties, but not without a toll. It is not uncommon for such demanding life experiences to “take the wind out of our sails.” The arduous, risky, unpredictable mountains and valleys of life are intimidating and thrilling at the same time. It is an adventure, and we must decide how we will live it. We can view the unknown future, with all its potential tragedies and triumphs, as frightening, or we can see it as adventurous. 

The Biblical view of this adventure, that we call life, is that it was meant to be an amazing journey that takes us places no one has been to before. For those who have committed their lives to Christ, it need not be scary, because we do not go into the future alone. In fact, much of what we see unfolding around the world has been predicted and recorded in Scripture. That same Scripture comforts those who trust in God, by assuring them that the new territory that we will encounter in 2022 can be embraced as a foray into the unknown, under the direction of the One who knows all things.