Can You Promise I Will Come Back?

Tonight, I went and saw the Hobbit with my dad and some friends. When I was little, my dad and I read the book together, so we wanted to share in the moment of the movie together as well. I think it's so interesting how God can chose to speak to us in different ways, even through movies.

The Hobbit is a great book, and the movie (so far) was good too. It's about a young hobbit who is thrown into an adventure. They portray hobbits as quiet, calm, habitual creatures who stay away from danger or adventure. They live in little, hole homes and never venture from their "Shire." This hobbit, Bilbo, however, gets a visit from a wizard, Gandolf, who wants his help on an adventure to take back the dwarves mountain from a dragon. Of course, Bilbo is flustered, upset, and wants nothing to do with it. He wants to stay in his comfortable home, in his comfortable chair, drinking tea by his comfortable fire.

I couldn't help but relate this to our own lives. God comes to us asking us to go on an adventure with Him, yet we make excuses because of our own comfort. How much do we miss out on by saying no to something God has for us or somewhere he wants us to go simply because it's "not in our nature to be adventurous?"

There was a quote that specifically stuck out to me. Bilbo is sitting in his chair considering the contract Gandolf wants him to sign. It tells of all the different ways he could die and how none of them are to be responsible for it should it happen. He then asks Gandolf, "Can you promise I will come back?" To which Gandolf replies, "No...And if you do, you will not be the same."

I feel like many of us are asking the same question as Bilbo. We ask God for promises before we do things. 

-Promise me that if I quit this job there will be another.
-Promise me that if I pray all the time life will be easier.
-Promise me that if I move there you'll have everything set up for me.
-Promise me that if I give them $100 I'll get even more back.
-Promise me I'll still be as comfortable if I let them move in.

But God is there replying, "No...and if you do, you will not be the same" because we have to have faith outside of our comfort zone, and you can bet that, if it's God ordained, your life will change forever. It'll change FOR THE BETTER.

There's no promise of life on this earth for today or tomorrow, and it's really not that amazing here anyway. God's adventures could take your life or make your life, but either way everything we have is a gift from above.

What adventure are you saying no to because it might make you uncomfortable??

⁵⁷ Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”⁶¹ And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:57-62