Questing for the Adventures of a Lifetime (this post is in process and incomplete at this time)

Questing for the Adventures of a Lifetime: Introduction. 

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” (Helen Keller).

To Quest (a very active verb): To engage in a long, difficult and adventurous journey that requires hard work in order to achieve a worthwhile goal or a valuable possession; to give oneself to a focused search, a single-minded pursuit, that frequently involves challenges, exploration, and personal growth; to invest personally in a prolonged endeavor in which the process is just as important as the product; to engage in a mission or expedition in an extensive search to discover something important.

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who continues to ask receives, and the one who continues to seek finds, and to the one who keeps knocking the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8).  

The Enemy of an Adventuresome Life: Spiritual Sloth: (Greek, “Acedia”); spiritual laziness; indifference and apathy at the deeper levels; lack of spiritual ambition; joyless in sacred pleasures; spiritual ennui; careless attitude toward spiritual matters; a dispassionate lack of mindfulness and soul-care; a listless ignorance of what is eternally important; empty of the energy to escape self-centeredness; a lack of motivation to follow through on spiritual duties and activities; a spiritual sluggard; a sickness of the soul that results in boredom with God; a vague sense of dissatisfaction with anything spiritual; a cold sin of omission that drifts away from any hope of locating life’s true purpose and meaning; the unwillingness to be a diligent seeker of God and His Kingdom; a strong temptation from the evil one to remain spiritually empty and unfulfilled. A spiritual sloth is content to, spiritually speaking, follow the pace of the real sloth by moving at ten feet per minute, 1/9th of a mile per hour, and sleep twenty hours a day.

Descriptions of Spiritual Sloth: 

1. “It is like dying in advance.” (Pope Francis);
2. “It is a deflation of the soul that hinders spiritual resolve.” (anonymous);
3. “It renders a person idle and useless for every spiritual work.” (John Cassian);
4. “It is a sort of heavy, oppressive sadness that presses down on a person’s mind in such a way that he wants to do nothing and no activity pleases him.”  (Thomas Aquinas);
5. “It is a joylessness when faced with God as our supreme joy.” (Peter Kreeft);
6. “It is a supernatural torpor that doesn’t want to take the trouble at asking the great spiritual questions.”  (Blaise Pascal);
7. “It is the sin that is so dead that it doesn’t even seem to rise to the level of sin; a sin so sinful that it isn’t even sin.” (Peter Kreeft).

“Seek first and foremost the Kingdom of God and His righteousness… For everyone who continues to seek will find. Be a seeker!” (Matthew 6:33, 7:7-8). 

ALERT! ADVENTURERS WANTED. In cooperation with the whole point of being created, questers are desperately needed to fulfill one’s personal calling and at the same time help develop a world worthy of Creator God. Quests like these are not only demanding but are well able to provide purpose and meaning that will otherwise be impossible to experience:

(1.) The Quest for Self-Identity: Made in God’s Image.

(2.) The Quest for Absolute Truth: Solid Ground for Reality.

(3.) The Quest for Eternal Paradise: Earning those Heavenly Rewards. 

(4.) The Quest for Pure Goodness: Fruit from the Garden of the Heart. 

(5.) The Quest for Legitimate Sainthood: Our Holy Calling.

(6.) The Quest for Authentic Love: Of God and Neighbor.

(7.) The Quest for a Personal God: Exploring the Final Frontier.