An article in More Intelligent Life magazine explores how dangerous, risk-taking activities are becoming a big business. The article notes, "Adrenaline holidays are moving from a niche market to a mainstream .... Danger is an international business." The article continues:

 

First there was bungee jumping, then free-running (vaulting from building to building) and BASE-jumping (parachuting off a fixed point). Now these have been joined by zorbing (rolling down slopes strapped inside a sphere) and snowkiting-the combination of kitesurfing and snowboarding. There's also coasteering-exploring shorelines without boats or ropes, swimming along the base of cliffs, clambering up rock faces, and diving into caves.

 

Parachutists and hang-gliders float through the skies, rock-climbers cling to sheer faces and skiers are dropped from helicopters. In the rainforests, the [daring] explore canopies on zip wires. In the oceans, we swim with sharks or free-dive without oxygen .... The Generation has given way to the Wheee Generation.

 

Why are we intentionally seeking out risky, fear-based activities? The article argues that it's a reaction to our sedentary, overly-safe society "where there are no dragons to slay or mastodons to hunt." 

 

A 35-year-old teacher says, "It's an escape from the mundane and the routine. If I don't [take risks] for a while, I feel prickly. I need to take those risks to feel fully human, fully alive. It's about joy and intensity." Another enthusiast says, "If we remove risk from our lives, we never find our strengths and weaknesses. We stagnate."

 

As exciting as all of this could possibly be, (and by the way, I've never gotten excited about jumping from a perfectly good airplane,) God has promised us that there is something of even greater value on the horizon of the future.

 

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."                    1 Corinthians 2:9

 

God has told us that He has a future planned for us that pales in comparison to anything that we have yet experienced.  May this thought make you smile today...and every day!

 

Have a great day and God bless!

 

 

 

Pastor Mike / The Open Word