Like any good adventure story, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters is rife with wrong turns and dead ends. This is the second book in a series about Percy Jackson, a teenager who finds out he is the son of the sea god Poseidon. Percy’s second hero quest sends him to the Sea of Monsters to rescue his friend. But it would hardly be an engaging story or even a fun one to read if he could just hop in a boat, paddle through the Sea of Monsters, rescue his friend, and return home.

Percy and his companions are faced with a myriad of roadblocks and dead ends as they tried to reach their captured friend. They expect the first boat they hop on to take them directly to the Sea of Monsters but when danger comes on board they are forced to abandon their ride and seek another way.

When seemingly under attack from enemies on all sides we believe, along with Percy, that this is it. Surely the end for Percy and his companions will come with the next barrage of weaponry. But it wouldn’t have been much of an adventure if it all ended there.

Along their journey, Percy and his companions make unexpected acquaintances and find help from people who, through their stereotypical heritage, were not expected to help Percy. After all, Cyclops are not supposed to help humans. Their adventurous journey brings together different people in unexpected ways – that’s what makes the adventure story so exciting.

A good adventure story keeps you guessing. You may think you’ve got it all figured out when the author throws a brand new monkey wrench into the plot and the characters veer off in a new direction.

Paul is having his own adventure story when we catch up with him and his traveling companions, Timothy and Silas. We heard about the beginning of Paul’s adventures a few weeks ago when we read about his being knocked to his knees and blinded by Christ on the road to Damascus.

Paul has already had quite an adventure as he reversed direction from persecuting Christians to trying to get others to follow Christ. One pathway of living life was slammed shut and Paul was shown a different path to follow. But that day on the Damascus road was just the beginning of Paul’s adventure journey as a mission worker for Christ.

Paul teamed up with another mission worker for Christ, Barnabas. They preached and taught about Christ in many different locations. However, they had a falling out. This partnership did not last through the disagreement and another way was shut on Paul’s journey. But just as one partnership broke up, another one was waiting in the wings. Timothy joined Paul and Silas and they began to make their way down another path that God had laid out for them.

Their quest was to proclaim the gospel of Christ to any who would listen. So they journeyed to different towns and began to preach about who Jesus was and why the people should follow the way Christ laid out for them.

Amazing things were happening through Paul, Silas, and Timothy but then they hit a roadblock. They had hoped to go to the towns of Asia and preach Christ there but the Holy Spirit blocked that way. So they changed direction and decided they would preach about Christ farther North in Bithynia. But once again the Spirit threw up a roadblock and Paul and his companions were forced to go in yet another direction.

That’s when Paul got a message. In a vision, Paul heard him being called to Macedonia. So after all of these roadblocks and wrong turns, Paul finally had a new path opened up for him. He was going to Macedonia. He ended up in Philippi, kind of the county seat for a region of Macedonia.

And when the Sabbath day rolled around, instead of going to the synagogue to preach about Christ, Paul went to an outdoor place of worship down by the river. Was Paul blocked by the Spirit from going to the synagogue on that Sabbath day? Did the Spirit appear to Paul and tell him to go down to the river to pray?

We aren’t sure what exactly lead Paul to the river or how he got the idea to go there that day, but there on the banks of the river, God was at work. For it was on the riverbank that day, that Paul met Lydia and Lydia heard about Christ, believed, and she, along with everyone in her household, were baptized right there in the river. And this was the beginning of the Philippian church. We have in our scriptures a letter Paul wrote to this gathering of Christians, a letter full of joy and thankfulness for the path that lead Paul to pray on the banks of the river that Sabbath day. All of those roadblocks, dead ends, and changes in direction lead Paul to Philippi – Paul’s quest lead him to the river that morning.

One of the rides at King’s Dominion is "Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion." On this ride four people get into a buggy and each are given ghost blasters. To start the ride we burst through the doors of the haunted mansion and are met by falling dressers and jumping boxes of Scooby Snacks.

With our ghost blasters, we target the ghosts to get them to jump out, say something funny, or make furniture move. Meanwhile the car drives through a maze of rooms, each time making us think we are going to run right into a bookcase or wall before taking a sharp turn and changing direction.

I think the last time we were at King’s Dominion with the youth group we rode that ride 3 times! Because there was so much going on, I saw new things each time through. The falling dresser still startled me and I was still sure we were going to run into one of the walls. But the whole adventure of the ride – the unexpectedness of it kept me engaged and on my toes.

As I was reading about Paul’s adventures this past week, I couldn’t help but think of this Scooby Doo ride. Running underneath the cars on the ride is a track. It’s painted black and blends in with the rest of the scenery. You can’t usually see it running along the floor, but sometimes, if you’re really looking for it, you can catch just a glimpse of it before you take another turn on the ride. But most of the time, the track remains hidden from view, giving no indication of when a sudden change in direction might be about to occur.

I think the Holy Spirit acts like the track in our life. Most of the time, we don’t know the Spirit is calling us to change direction until we find ourselves up against a wall – with the way blocked before us. Other times, if we are really looking for it, we can just catch a glimpse of the Holy Spirit’s track in front of us. Though we don’t have rattling boxes of Scooby Snacks or wardrobes shaking all around us, we do have lots of distractions that can keep us from seeing the Spirit’s path before us.

But if I can push this idea a little further. I think one of the attractions of this type of ride is that we don’t just sit back, strapped into our seats and have the ride happen to us. We become part of the ride. We participate in our experience of the adventure. With the ghost blasters, we tickle the ghosts and cause them to react. In turn, they jump out at us and cause us to react.

Paul didn’t just sit back and wait for a boat to just happen to lead him to the place God wanted him to be. He journeyed to different places and prayed about where God was calling him to go. Paul wasn’t just passively sitting back and enjoying the ride God was taking him on starting from that Damascus experience. Paul was reaching out and touching others. Paul and his companions were talking to real people about their very real experiences of Christ in their lives.

And on that Sabbath morning in Philippi, Paul reached out again and touched Lydia, a powerful, independent woman, with the Holy Spirit. And boy did she react. She stood up and proclaimed that she believed and asked Paul to baptize her and everyone who lived with her. And just as Lydia reacted to Paul, Paul reacted to Lydia. And as though the Spirit itself was speaking from Lydia’s lips, Paul baptized her and another adventure began.

We are on our own adventure journey. The Spirit is constantly putting roadblocks in front of one direction and leading us to go another way. Like Percy Jackson, we have been given a quest to fulfill. The words came from Christ himself, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." This was the disciple’s quest, it was Paul’s quest and it remains our quest.

It is not an easy quest. It’s not something we can just do and then check off our list. It is an adventure, full of pitfalls, roadblocks, forks in the road, and paths that lead where we never thought we could go. But throughout it all the track of the Spirit runs along our path and through prayer and intent listening we may hear the direction we are to go in next. May God’s Spirit guide us along our adventure journey of faith.