"ONCE UPON A TIMES"
A great many more years ago than I like to think about I was staying in a home where there
was a lovely little girl who was not quite three years old. Like most others of her age this little
charmer was eager to have someone tell her stories. She was never satisfied but as soon as
one was finished she began to plead for another. She never called them stories. Instead, as
soon as I entered the house and sat down, she came and crawled upon my lap, adjusted her
head against my shoulder, and said, "Now tell me a 'once upon a time.' " When I had obliged
her she immediately said, "Don't quit. Tell me another 'once upon a time.'"
It did not take me too long to exhaust my meager fund of fairy tales and after I had run
Rumpelstiltskin through the mill a few times and had elaborated upon trolls, brownies, elves,
and other little people, until I was tired of them, I decided I would have to devise some stories
from life. I hit upon the expediency of taking objects which were in sight and concocting tales
about them. I chose for my first candidate a large gray cat which lived a pampered life in the
household.
Accordingly, I began, "I know a large gray cat which lies in front of the fireplace dreaming
about things he used to do when he was a kitten." Immediately my little audience of one
stopped me. "Don't tell that," she said, "I don't want to hear about real things. I want to hear
'once upon a times'!" Perhaps it is because a lot of folk never grew up that they react as did
this little child. We never tire of hearing about David and his sling, Samson and his fiery foxes,
or Moses with his snake-swallowing serpent. But a great many apparently think God has run
out of power and the divine battery is so depleted it cannot crank us up and get us going in our
time.
I never tire of reading the sacred scriptures. Some of the "once upon a times" there are
thrilling. And they happened. There are no myths and folk-tales in the Bible. Samson was as
real as Charles Atlas. Moses was as real as George Washington. But the God whom I serve
did not work Himself into retirement. He has not been laid upon the shelf. Adventure is not
something which once was and is no more. The joy, the zest, the thrill of adventure belong to
every child of God who is willing to reach out and grasp them.
In his book The Adventure of Living, Dr. Paul Tournier points out that the law of adventure is
that one must die in order to be born again. It is difficult for a lot of people to die. They want to
hang on to some of the past to be certain of a reference point. They want to rescue an
heirloom or carry with them a keepsake. But because they cannot make a complete break with
life as it has been they can never fully receive or appreciate those things which "God has
prepared for them that love Him."
In this little volume I would like to accomplish two things. One is to prove that God does not
want any of His children to be content with mediocrity. He has designed us to be "more than
conquerors through him who loved us." No two of us will be alike and no two of us need to be.
But we do need to realize that we were born again to a life of victorious accomplishment, and
that we begin with victory over self. We can lift up our eyes to the hills, as the Psalmist put it,
and we can demonstrate enthusiasm which literally means to be possessed by God. One who
is a God-container cannot keep the contents from showing through.
The other thing I aspire to do is to prove that the spirit of adventure does not need to be a relic
of history. There are unexplored frontiers. There are new heights to ascend and new oceans to
cross. The mere fact that they are not visible does not mean they are not real. We make a
tragic mistake when we equate reality with visibility. Life needs to be lived with a challenge. We
need to be constantly on the cutting-edge of destiny. The followers of Jesus can never justify a
life of callous indifference. They are to be imitators of God as beloved children. This is the road
of high adventure!
Wherever you are as you read this I eagerly pray that it will lead you into a closer walk with
God, so that you will realize that wealth we have in "the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ." And let none of us ever forget that we have this treasure in
earthen vessels "to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us."
Contents
Next Chapter: 1. The Need for New Frontiers