Day #1298

July 21, 2017

Soon, in what almost seems like the snap of a finger, the week at camp is over. Everyone goes home and the camp returns to the quiet, reflective space. Until it begins again on Sunday afternoon. What an amazing place - and an amazing week. 

On this last day a couple of things:

• First was the closing worship. It struck me that at the beginning of each worship service, those leading would shout out in their most welcoming and excited voices - WELCOME TO WORSHIP! And the rest of us would respond with cheers and clapping. The thought came to me: how cool it would be if every worship service at home would begin this way. Hmmm.
• Second, I couldn’t help but be struck by one young camper who was the most challenging one during the week. Everyone was affected in some way by this camper’s refusal to participate, settle down, follow the rules, some kind of behavior challenge. Well, as we were waiting for everyone to get ready to leave, I sat down next to the young one and said "I hope you have a good rest of the summer." The response both surprised and saddened me. "I have three more weeks of camps to go to." Three!?!?, I said. Yep - this one and that one and the next. Oh my word, I thought, no wonder this young one struggles to stay “in line,” since they have possibly spent their summer, or a large part of it, moving from one camp to another, meeting all sorts of new people and learning new authority figures. Wow! So in thinking of the parable for this week (Matthew 13:24-30) where Jesus says to let the weeds and wheat grow together, I had to wonder how I could have differently nurtured "seed" that I assumed was weed, because it just might have actually been wheat. Good lesson!

Blessings.