Camp & After Thoughts...

Whoa, hard to believe how this summer has flown by! (...Has flown? Is flying? Guess I won't rush the next couple weeks...) My work with Camps Farthest Out is 'rapidly-wrapping up' for the year, and the sunny evenings are quickly getting shorter. I just came home from BC Van Isle CFO, and wow, what a great camp this year! (Endless thank-yous, Council Ring!!) It is always so good to see people coming together for the same purpose of celebrating Jesus and His awesome love!

In the short few years of my life thus far, God has used Camps Farthest Out in amazing ways. It has changed me, it has moved me. It has made me hungry for more of God...for reality, not as the world sees it; but rather, from the Holy Spirit's perspective. It has healed me, it has stretched me (big time!!!) and grown me. Each and every CFO has its own flavour and its own gems to offer, and I'm continually blessed by the diversity of the people who attend; "one body of Christ, many parts."

My "home camp" as I call it, Van Isle CFO, meets annually by a large river on the Island. Every year, we eagerly head down for some swimming and, if one is brave, perhaps a few dives off the huge "jumping rock". Each year, the river changes bit by bit. This year, however, we were all in for a big surprise. Over the winter, the rushing currents knocked out a few large trees, taking out the bridge to the beloved rock and creating some new bends in the river with a whole lot stronger current. There was still a small, safe swimming hole, but it is amazing how much the river has changed. I think we were all in shock!

I was marvelling about this as I unpacked my things this morning, and the thought hit me that the river should be a parallel to my life. (Now, please bear with me, I get tired of parallels to water/rivers/oasis/rain too! Yet still...)

It struck me how easy it is. Easy? Yeah, easy. Easy to slip into that oh-so-familiar after camp mode. I'm tired. I've had a long week. A long summer! I have to go back to my "real" job. Winter is coming. Time to start thinking about firewood. And soon after, about Christmas. (Shoot, did I really say that?! Somebody smack me!) I'm gearing down. Why do I feel so apathetic? But really, it's so... so easy.

What's not easy is to be like that river. You know, the one that changes so much every year. It doesn't just change overnight, oh no...it changes bit by bit, everyday. It does its regular thing, flowing along, brushing past rocks and debris, sweeping around trees and etching into banks. Sometimes it changes more quickly in a flood or storm, and sometimes slowly as it bubbles along. Just like it always has, and always will. Hey, rivers have mundane tasks, too! (How would you like to spend the whole day and night carrying logs and dirt?) But the river has a direction. A purpose, if you will. It's going somewhere.

We know that we are to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:2,) "redeeming the time, because the days are evil," (Ephesians 5:16) (So much for settling into apathetic routine!) Huh. Is my life going somewhere? Am I going somewhere? If I'm being transformed to be more like Christ, I should be changing. Everyday. Different. Like the river. Huh.

Okay, I think I've talked enough for one posting. In conclusion, thank you for reading this far! And when you think of me, (echoing 1 Thessalonians 5:25,) "Brethren, pray for us." Let's be transformed!