Life is an adventure when you learn to enjoy every day with the people you love instead of solely focusing on achieving selfish big dreams.
I saw the Disney movie Up this past weekend. It was such a great movie; so colorful, creative, and funny. Not very many movies leave such an impression on me to the point where I’m still thinking about them a few days later.
The movie was very creative. It vividly showed some great truths about life and people’s perception of it. The movie starts out with a boy and girl, Carl & Ellie, that grow up, get married, and grow old. They do this while holding on to their dream of adventure in South America. Eventually, the woman dies without them ever getting to go on their adventure. Then there is the character Charles Muntz, a man and an adventurer the couple idealized from their childhood. He was a man on a mission to prove himself to the world.
So many of us, myself included, have dreams of big adventures that we feel will complete our lives. My big adventure dream is to sail around the circumference of the earth stopping in ports all over the world. With my camera in one hand and a journal in the other.
Dreams like that are not very likely or accessible to most people. I’m sure if I focused on it and made it my mission in life I could make it happen. But at what cost? He ended up losing himself and was even willing to commit murder to fulfill his life’s dream. That reminds me of a question Jesus asked in Matthew 16:26. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
At the end of the movie, Carl looks at a photo album that Ellie had started making when she was a girl. That album remained mostly empty throughout the years waiting to be filled with photos of their adventure in South America. As he flipped through the pages, to his amazement and joy, he saw that she had filled it with photos of their years together as a couple. She then signed it, “Thanks for the adventure — now go have a new one! Love Ellie.”
At that very moment, Carl, in his old age, learned that life and adventure aren’t just about following your big dreams and ambitions. It’s about enjoying every day. Loving your wife, having fun with your kids, and being present in the lives of those who love you.
I’ve been learning to see every day of my life as an adventure, I challenge you to do the same as well.
Hey, that’s powerufl. Thanks for the news.