Acts 21:1  After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara. (NLT)

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The remaining chapters of Acts include an exciting travelogue, intriguing encounters, and powerful people pushing around those empowered from on high, as well as letters written and relationships strengthened here and strained there. Death lurks in the shadows. Light and life from on high drives the darkness away. 

I love this book. 

Someone challenged a small group of us during our college days to read this book straight through in one sitting. Sitting in my car on a cool and rainy afternoon, awaiting my scheduled shift on air at the college radio station, I opened my Bible and accepted the challenge.

I have never been the same since. This book is better than a novel. It involves real people in real places coming to grips with God, his purpose, his directions, his protection, and dangers galore. Miracles abound. The course of history is altered. The effects of these incidents continue today. 

Arriving in our nation’s capital a few days ago, several adventures awaited. I walked into a restaurant for our first meeting and began to sense problems that I couldn’t understand. These grew more intense and personal as the evening wore on and I returned to our hotel. I couldn’t pray as I normally do that evening. Tactics shifted. Prayers focused on specific issues of significant importance.

God heard and answered those prayers rather spectacularly. At times, I felt as though I was living some of the adventures described in the Book of Acts. Please understand, it’s not all that dramatic. Important words have been spoken, big decisions have been made, and plans have been implemented. 

Helen Keller famously said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” 

Today, the adventure leads home, however briefly. Tomorrow begins another journey, this time two hours to the West by highway in the company of one of my wisest friends. It’s good to have friends whose hearts beat steady when the heat is on. It’s good to have friends who understand deep truth, and who also hear the call of distant trumpets. 

We only have so many Saturdays in our lifetimes. If we marked them by removing a marble from a jar representing the number we have left in our expected lifespans, every Saturday would remind us how precious each is. 

How will you account for this Saturday? What will you write in your journal? What lesson will you learn or reinforce? What gratitude will spill over onto a page at the end of the day?

Today is a daring adventure. It is most certainly not nothing.

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I will live the adventure God has laid out before me. 

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Our Father, please direct my steps. Guide me safely home. Prepare me for all that’s before me. Thank you for unexpected friends and companions on the journey. Amen.