This.is.the.place.to.be.on.earth
Every year, I have thoughts like, "I'm not sure I can go another year." Or, maybe it's best to stay home. Let the younger crowd take it. But EVERY summer, since 1985, I pack my bags and head to Indian Creek Baptist Camp in Bedford. And, EVERY summer, since 1985, I leave refreshed, renewed, and deeply saddened to go.
The reasons I sometimes consider not going:
1. Packing for the entire family (regardless of who goes to camp)
2. Planning where my kids will stay and when
3. No air conditioning for a week
4. Extremely smelly clothes by the end of the week
5. Not feeling clean for a week
6. Gaga ball
7. Sleeping arrangements (I'm terrified in the cabins at night with just a little "hook" for a lock)
8. Head lice (yes, it's a concern every year)
9. I love my summer. I love being home and not at work. My summer is too short as it is
10. For a week, having to carry my toiletries to the bathhouse to shower every morning.
Then, I pack for the 5 people. Forget about air conditioning. Pretend gaga ball is great. Pray that my hair stays bug free. And, suck it up about the bathhouse. So, that I can go where I have been for 29 years every summer (even while taking graduate school classes) b/c I have found nowhere on earth where I experience the presence of God with such power. And, NONE of those 10 reasons are bigger than the greatness of God that I see. Yes, we smell. The kids smell. And, sometimes walking into the chapel and smelling a weeks worth of "maybe I showered" middle school kids makes me want to vomit. BUT, God is still better. His Spirit moves. We encounter it. He changes us. He meets us there. He transforms the lives of 11, 12, 13 year old kids. The kids show us how to worship with abandon. There we find CHURCH. True Church. More similar to the early church than anything I have ever experienced (and I have been to some great churches). My dearest friends (sisters and brothers actually) were met on that swing and talked to on that bench. This week I even counseled with a dear friend that I met when I was 16. A camp friend who "rocked the chapel" back in the day. And, it was as if we had seen each other every year for the past 29 years instead of not seeing each other for 9 years.
The door to the chapel in that picture has welcomed me at my highest point and at my deepest low. Stripped of the "comforts" of my daily life I find the most peace I have ever had within those hallowed walls. Every year, it's a different group of us but the Spirit is the same. Sound equipment can fail, sewage lines explode, people wreak of sweat, a dining hall be closed. . .and it's still the best place on earth. Every summer when I was younger coming home from camp almost sent me into extreme sadness. I would cry until there were no more tears to cry the day I left. Then for weeks afterwards, I would stare out my windows at home and pretend I was looking at those camp swings. And I would long for next summer to come. As I have gotten older, I don't sob when I'm leaving (let's be real, I kind of want to sleep in my bed by the end). But, today, I have found my heart aching and sadness creeping in like it always did. I love the group of people at the camp so much. Our time together is so limited. But, PRAISE God that there will be a day when we will no longer have to leave one another, when we can linger at the feet of Jesus without worry about the time, how dirty the kids in the gaga pit are, whether or not the kids are breaking glow sticks and splattering it over the cabin, who has bathhouse duty, whether we ate too much cheese and not enough fiber, and if our class is a success or a flop. We can just.LINGER. We will reunite with those who went ahead of us. Then, we have all eternity to worship the ONE who brought us together in the first place.
I already miss you Indian Creek. See you next year!
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