“Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven or have thy sins and go to hell?” This was the voice that John Bunyan heard in the summer of 1649 as he was on the village green in Enstow, England. Bunyan would follow that voice to his salvation in Christ where he embarked on a journey that would impact not only his life, but thousands of people for nearly 500 years. Throughout his journey Paul Bunyan would face painful personal battles, imprisonment, and great battles with depression, yet this rugged adventurer found an eternal jewel that would bring him to value the treasure of every clawing inch of territory explored in his life.

John Bunyan spent over twenty years of his life in and out of jail for preaching the Gospel in England. At that time in English history it was considered a threat to the King of England if you preached the gospel outside of the walls of the Church of England. Bunyan could not find his way into the English Church as a preacher during a very corrupt and harsh time in English Church History. So he decided that he would preach the good news to people outside of the Church of England. Bunyan was used of God to bring many followers into the Kingdom. Hundreds of people would flock to Bunyan’s gatherings which brought on the persecution of the Church of England and the English government. Nearly 6 different times Bunyan would be put in prison for preaching the Gospel. When released he would tell his accusers, “if you free me today, I will preach the Gospel tomorrow.” Bunyan was relentless and his passion for God clearly initiated a journey was full of unexplainable adventure.

While in prison, sometime in 1678 Paul Bunyan wrote a fictional depiction of the Christian adventure called, The Pilgrim’s Progress. The main character of this book was a pilgrim named Christian, who was trying to journey to a place called the Celestial City. While on his way, this adventurer would face hard times, he would fight giants, and destroy impossible enemies. Yet, Christian, the main character, would never be absent of the amazing victory over his challenges through the allegorical presence of Christ. When released, The Pilgrim’s Progress became the Chronicles of Narina of it’s day. The book has existed nearly 500 years, it has been translated in over 400 different languages. It is still considered one of the great Christian Classics to this day because it still depicts the exciting truth about walking with Christ, which is that this walk is the most exciting adventure that one can take in his or her life.

I was 8 years old when my parents read this book with me. As I suppose most 8 year boys do, I loved adventure. I loved the idea of being an explorer. My favorite stories that I had learned in school or at home were about Daniel Boone, David Livingston, or Lewis and Clark. I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up and walk on the moon, or climb to the top of Mount Everest. The idea of adventure thrilled me as a child and I loved creating imaginary adventures in the forests behind my home in Illinois. Hence, it should be no surprise that I read the Pilgrim’s Progress with wide-open eyes and a throbbing heart, as Christian fought off Giants, evil enemies with flaming darts, and ravenous beasts with his magnificent sword that represented the Word of God. Growing up it was books like these that set in my mind the perspective that Christianity is a grand adventure.

I’m afraid that the understanding of a walk with Christ has lost it’s luster over the years as the church has tried define better ways to articulate faith. We’ve seen the Gospel manipulated as a means to get wealth, a way out of hell, a source to personal wholeness, a self help, or an endowment of spiritual superiority. The Christian faith is either Presbyterian, Meathodist, Baptist, Charismatic, Catholic, or something other than what it was ever intended to be. We have lost the excitement of walking with Christ and replaced it by what camp you are in, how often are you faithful to your local church or what are you doing to be a better person. A relationship with God has lost it’s creative and mysterious nature because we think that we have figured Him out and how to leverage His grace in order to accomplish what we think we need.

That’s not how God designed our relationship to look. When God began to make things, it was wildly creative. His purpose in creation was to mirror the endless and exotic beauty of His very nature. Yet, the most profound thing about his creation was humanity. We were created unique simply because we were created in God’s exact image. Hence, men and women were never designed to be boring, dull, or uneventful. We were designed with every intention to share a relationship with our Creator where He would lead us through the breathtaking and glorious displays of his magnificent love. This desire that God has to walk with us and to captivate us with the roses of his creation, or the character of his desire for us has never changed.

Through Christ we are invited to take a journey with God that will go against the grain of normality. It is never void of enthralling exploration. In Christ, we will encounter giants that are impossible to defeat, and we will watch them fall. We will stand against enemies who are more lethal, cunning and far more numerous than we could possibly imagine. Yet, we will never suffer defeat. In Christ, we will journey across impassible territory, we will taste the bitterness of death and destruction, and persecution will be a familiar friend. However, we will never be absent of God’s remarkable power to endure. And like the Apostle Paul, we will arise and say, “Death where is your victory? Grave where is your sting?” A walk with Christ is one where we will constantly stand face to face with the impossible and will never once experience anything less than the victorious splendor of our Savior.

We were made for a grand and daring journey. An adventure that will test our faith and endurance at times. Yet, one that will never leave us less than enamored by the fantastic love and power of our sweet shepherd. A walk with Christ is not what church you attend, what your family believes, or what theology with which you best align. It is not specifically about a feeling or a philosophy, or whether your conservative or liberal in your beliefs. Walking with Christ is an adventure into the unknown territories of God’s power and Love. It is not for the half-hearted or luke-warm. It is for those who are captivated by God and who, by the Holy Spirit, are willing to embrace their created design to walk in an enthralling relationship with the Creator.

“God’s grace is the most incredible and insurmountable truth ever to be revealed to the human heart, which is why God has given us His Holy Spirit to superintend the process of more fully revealing the majesty of the work done on our behalf by our Savior. He teaches us to first cling to, and then enables us to adore with the faith He so graciously supplies, the mercy of God. This mercy has its cause and effect in the work of Jesus on the cross.”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come