Hi everyone, Evan here.
I have some exciting news I wanted to tell you about. It’s been a blast writing for #LiveFully over the past year and a half. This is a great community and I hope in some way our writing has helped you live a more full life.
While I will still be contributing new content here (probably around 3 posts per month) I will also be taking a step back. Why? To launch a new blog called Adventure’s Out There.
Where did Adventure’s Out There come from?
Adventure has always been a passion of mine – it’s one of the main reasons my wife and I moved to New Zealand. About two years before our move overseas, Morgan and I were having a late night conversation. She had spoken about moving to a new country before, but I always thought it was some romanticized dream in her mind – not an actual goal.
But for some reason, the way she talked about it that night struck me differently. I vividly remember her looking at me, her brown eyes full of hope, and asking “do you really think we could move to New Zealand?”
Suddenly, this dream of hers seemed to very real, as if God had laid it on her heart for a specific reason. Wanting to be a good husband, and being the eternal optimist I am, I replied, “sure, let’s go for it.”
It was daunting – in fact it seemed impossible. I had never moved out of Georgia, much less out of the U.S. We only knew one family in Christchurch, and had no idea how to get visas. We did not even know what we did not know!
And yet, somehow, two years later we found ourselves hopping on a plane and taking off on an incredible adventure.
Two important questions
I’ve spent the last year reflecting on this, and it’s pretty cool that we accomplished something I once thought impossible. The whole experience has caused me to ask some very important questions: what other things in life have I never tried because they sounded impossible? What else am I missing out on?
And so I am starting Adventure’s Out There – as a way to inspire and equip people to chase their dreams and live more adventurously.
It does not matter what your dream is – everyone’s idea of adventure is unique. My hope is to help people discover their adventure and really go for it. It may seem difficult, it might even end in failure. But until we get up off the couch and go for it, we will never know.
An invitation
If any of that resonates with you, I’d invite you to visit Adventure’s Out There. I’ve already got 3 posts live and will be posting a new one every Monday. If you choose to subscribe (which I recommend) you’ll get the Adventure Toolkit, which contains several resources to help you achieve your goals and live more adventurously.
This has taken quite a lot of work over the last couple of months, but I’ve learned a lot and am excited to see what the future brings. Either way, I’m excited to continue posting here at #LiveFully on a semi-regular basis. Thanks again for helping make this a great community!
by J.R.R. Tolkien: If you have spent five minutes with me, you probably knew this was coming. One of my earliest memories is reading The Hobbit with my dad. I’ve read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy four times. It’s simply my favorite story ever.
by J. Oswald Sanders: I have read this book twice, and am about due for a third reading. Sanders writes with a profound and piercing voice that challenges leaders. If you want to find glory and fame as a leader, this is not the book for you. If you need to be reminded of the cost of leadership, then this is where you should start. It’s an incredibly challenging book, and one that will drive you closer to God.
by Tim Keller: I just finished reading this for the first time, and it might be my favorite Christian book. I’m a massive CS Lewis fan, and if anyone alive today can match his wit and writing style, it is Keller. In this book, he handles the most common arguments people give about why God does not exist, and then he spends the second half of the book giving reasons it is completely rational to believe in Him. At times it can seem heavy, but these are the questions that matter most in our generation.
by Randy Pope: If I could identify one thing the church needs to do better today, it would be authentic discipleship. This was the model Jesus used, and through discipleship the world was transformed. Today we often trade the long and slow process of life-on-life investment for big flashy events that draw a crowd. While I enjoy those events, I know that hearts are far more likely to change and grow through discipleship. Insourcing is an excellent guide to building an effective discipleship program from a very clear communicator who has been making disciples for forty years.
by CS Lewis: A great series from one of Tolkien’s best friends. I’ve loved these books for years, even when I was a kid terrified of the white witch (no joke – I couldn’t focus in class one day because she was staring at me from the front cover of a book). All of them have incredible analogies for our relationship with God, and frankly I can’t wait to read these books to my (future) children.
by JK Rowling
by Robert McKee: I love movies, so much so that I am seriously considering attempting to make them. Story explains what actually makes a good story (specifically, what makes a good film). But the applications are not just for the film industry, there are important things to learn from this book if you actually want to live a good life.
