You're listening to the Allender Center podcast with Dr. Dan Allender.

This week, Dan concludes his series on play.

Dan has returned from his 10-day motorcycle trip through the backcountry of Colorado,

and through story about his adventure invites us to consider how play begins to open the door to seeing the larger

realities of life. The motorcycle trip has finished and the finish line has been passed and

passed sweetly and successfully. I thought it would be profitable to return to some of the core

categories that I've attempted to address with regard to play. And now that I've had approximately

10 days of significant backcountry, Colorado, adventure motorcycling on a GS BMW 800.

I thought it would be best to reflect on some of what I have learned through this process.

Again, to set the scene, John Eldridge invited me with three of his sons, Sam, Blaine, and Luke,

and one of their good friends, John Dale. The six of us did a over 1,000 mile trip from Colorado

Springs into the center of Colorado, dropping down into the south near

New Mexico, coming back over four mountain passes to make our way up to a ranch near steamboat

springs.

So that thousand mile loop involved a lot of blue highways, a lot of BLM, dirt roads,

and a lot of simply treacherous mountain passes. And that journey was being taken in order to set the context to tell the story not only of our trip, but to invite others to consider the nature of story itself.

And what looking and reading and thinking about one's own story might bring one to, not just with regard to adventure, but regard to the very deepest

adventure of all, which is living in the kingdom of God for the sake of love. So that was the

task. We had a film crew of three brilliant, brilliant folks. Eric and Eli were and David were the three who focused their cameras,

Eric, the director, Eli and David, the photographers, and the six cast with a support crew of

remarkable Morgan and Alex. The 11 of us were on a journey, and this journey

certainly brought me some of the most difficult days I've known, and though this may sound

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