January 19, 2016 | Staff

Click Here to Change the World

As we begin a new year, Adventures Staff Nate Hauser shares his secret to living life to its fullest.

Does your 2016 already feel just like 2015?

Think for a moment on two things: your childhood and your now (whatever it is).

As a child, I remember being consumed with hope of an infinitely possible future. I was going to be an astronaut, explore distant lands, go where no one had gone before. I was going to be a filmmaker. I spent my youth studying the likes of Kubrick and Spielberg. I’m a sucker for a butter-soaked popcorn blockbuster.

Then as I matured, I wanted to be a pediatric oncologist. I was often asked, “Why would you want to spend your life in such an emotionally heavy place?”

My easy response was, “to help and serve”. I wanted to bring comfort to a family in distress, healing to a child destroyed by sickness, and even if there was no remission, shower a kid with love, joy, and happiness for whatever amount of life was left.

I was going to, I wanted to, I dreamed…

Now I, like most, am consumed only with fear instead of hope. Fear that my Instagram photo won’t get enough likes or that you won’t even like this blog. That in fact, you stopped reading a paragraph prior and labeled my thoughts cliched or pretentious. I know there must be a text, a like, or buzzfeed article that is more interesting. My fear of (dis)approval dictates my actions, from the things I say to the filter I choose.

And each day I ask myself, When did I stop dreaming, wanting, and more importantly – doing?

We live in a society where mindlessly “liking” a status, or hashtagging a movement is the same as action. But it’s not. Girls are still being trafficked, countries rocked by natural disasters still need help, entire nations don’t have clean water, and people all over the world are being killed for their beliefs.

And I am satisfied with a “like”? In reality, belief requires action, and ideas create change.

So where does that leave me? Where does that leave you?

Seth Barnes, founder of Adventures of Missions said, “Living in the hyperspace of modernity, the gap between thought and action narrows to paper-thin. To live is to respond. And in the absence of intentionality and prayer, regrets pile up. We can become what we dread. We can find ourselves slowly shuffling off to a boring future. Dead at 50, buried at 80. I am committed that this will not be my fate. Life in God is full of so many rich possibilities if we’ll just say yes to them.”

As 2016 has just arrived, many of us (including myself) look back at 2015 with regret, and we begin feverishly compiling our 2016 list of resolutions determined to make good on the countless promises we failed in previous year: This will be the year I lose weight. This will be the year I write a book. This will be the year I give more.

Yet we’re all quickly realizing, this year is turning out much like the last.

Flashback to June 2013: I stood in my kitchen with a litany of complaints and regrets: “My life this, my life that”.

Then my friend stopped me. He said “Why don’t you stop complaining about what isn’t and actually spend some time pursuing your dreams?”

If I’m honest, I hated that. And for a while, I hated him for saying it. But I took that anger and turned it into action.

Two years later, I’ve traveled to almost 30 different countries. I’ve been to five continents and seen and done some really amazing things. I am nothing short of extraordinarily blessed.

I could spend days talking about all the amazing adventures over the past two years. I saw Mount Everest, dove with sharks, watched as two oceans converged on one another crashing together in a literal sea of teal and blue. I rode motorcycles through the jungles of southeast Asia, hid from governments because our sharing our faith was illegal, hiked mountain trails until my feet bled, and got lost in cities with more than 20 million people.

But so much more importantly, I saw lives changed. Life requires living for more than yourself. All of the things above are simply the result of obedience. A bonus that comes from walking with the Father.

God wants his children to have abundant life, not passable existence. The problem is we seek meaning in meaningless things.

In so much travel I’ve realized how small and insignificant I really am, how narrow my view of the world is, and how there is infinite wealth of knowledge I have yet to obtain. I have even struggled with understanding the point of it all: why even bother? My life’s work would be a drop in the bucket.

But then I think of Moses, Paul, Napoleon, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill, and Steve Jobs. These live started out as people with a choice: pursue passion, fight for justice, seek innovation, or simply survive: a choice with greatest of consequences.

We are a generation of world changers.

Never has there been such readily available information, resources, and freedom. Will we tap the infinite potential? Will we step beyond comfort to create change?

The world will never run out of problems or people to solve them. The only question is: would you like to be part of the solution? What steps are you willing to take? What sacrifices are you willing to make? Or will 2016 end up like all the rest, unsure of where your time, money, and passion went? Will this be the year we step beyond feelings, wishes, and desires, and begin to mend the severed connection between dreams and action?

One of my favorite things is to look back on all my childhood dreams and see how God has fulfilled every one of them. I may not be an astronaut, or a filmmaker, or a pediatric oncologist. But He has given me so many moments of exploration, a lens through which to share my experience, and an opportunity to bring hope, joy, and healing to a world full of sickness.