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Summer Camp … Misfits at the Meal

Posted in Faith, GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #givegenerously, #misfits, #misfitsatthemeal, #summercamp, #supportsummercamp on August 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

As I write this post it is Tuesday evening.

I am sitting at a long ‘staff’ meal table, looking down on the lake, watching someone doing periodic flips in the air from the back of a boat, the sun setting in the smokey (forest fire) skies, and I am listening to nearly one hundred teens play a bonding game for the prize of a table of candy (see pic, below, of the eight foot long table).

I am back at the camp that has been the soul home of our son for eleven summers. Today I got to meet another ‘camp’ mom, whose son is completing his tenth season (and they just ‘happen’ to be co-counselling a cabin of teen boys).

She and I shared similar memories, similar stories told to each of us by our sons, similar responses and feelings about the impact this place and it’s people have had on our sons.

But we shared more than just mutual blessings that our sons reaped.

We shared the pride of being asked by a fifteen year old guy if there was any way he could help out … while on his break from work crew.

We observed an insecure teen grow in stature as another teen reached out and befriended him.

We heard the most sincere prayer for a meal by a male teen, whose confidence comes, not from his outward appearance, but from a knowledge that he is unconditionally accepted by this community.

We heard a volunteer who drives the boat for tubing and other water sports, tell of his long-term involvement at this camp with no end in sight.

We spent a day with a well-retired, still hand-holding couple volunteering in the August-hot kitchen, because they just love teens and want to give.

We spent the day with each other … working, observing, listening, absorbing the blessing that is summer camp.

As I reflected on the joys of being a mom who got to be in this place, and saw teens being encouraged, supported, taught and loved in a way that moms dream their children might receive in this life …

As I looked at that table covered with sugary candy …

I was reminded of a story that Jesus told. He was around a Sabbath table with religious scholars and one of the top leaders of the Pharisees (whose eyes were closely on him, waiting for Jesus to slip up and break a law). These were the crème de la crème of Jewish society.

The story comes part way through Luke 14, and I love how it is told in the Message (the title starts it well):

Invite the Misfits

“He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table … if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!”

This is what summer camp is, or can be … a dinner of misfits.

Sure there are those who come every year, know everything there is to know about the camp and it’s people. There are those who come with their people, their besties. There are those who come with confidence in any situation. But there are also the … misfits. The ones who come alone. The ones who didn’t want to come. The ones that come because an individual or fundraiser supported their attendance.

They arrive, maybe excited, maybe scared, maybe angry. They may arrive and look around at others with their familiarity with the camp, with their people, their confidence. They may look around and feel dressed wrong, feel financially inferior, feel like … a misfit.

What I have observed is that if someone works or volunteers at a summer camp, they are the ones who have learned that “if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself”. You’ll become a blessing to others … to the misfits.

And they do.

Not every child or teen comes from a home with the means to attend a summer camp.

As a matter of fact, I was one of those misfits. Thanks to a Grandmother who had the means, and the generosity to go with it, I got to go to summer camp and be blessed by the experience of being encouraged, supported, taught and loved.

Today I am reminded that if I have the means, I need to provide the means for others to attend summer camp. Maybe I even need to make this a monthly plan … maybe you do too?

“They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!”

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Today is Not the End

Posted in WONDER on August 14, 2018| 2 Comments »

Today is not the end …
stop looking at the reality of today as the reality of an eternity …
God is still working things out

That has been my mantra for about a year. I do not remember exactly when, or where or what prompted me to adopt those words and their meaning as my mantra. I do know that it was born out of great fear and sadness and anxiety for those who I love.

When phases of our life come to completion we often think that we should have it all together.

When we graduate high school or university, when engagement turns to marriage, when our final child is born, when our final child graduates from high school or college, when we retire, when we reach thirty, or forty, or seventy …

Often, not long after having completed that milestone there is a crashing down, as the expectations we had for where we should be come crashing down, leaving us with feelings of inadequacy, disappointment and failure.

It can result in us feeling a failure.

But …

Today is not the end …
stop looking at the reality of today as the reality of an eternity …
God is still working things out

I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:12:

“We don’t yet see things clearly.
We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.
But it won’t be long before the weather clears
and the sun shines bright!
We’ll see it all then,
see it all as clearly as God sees us,
knowing him directly just as he knows us!”

Whether we are agonizing over what to do after high school, finding that dream job after university (with the student loan payments knocking at your door), wondering where the love is gone after the ‘I dos’, frustrated that giving birth has not brought the fulfillment you had dreamed of, are not experiencing the job successes anticipated at this age, relationships are not joy-filled, children are not walking with God, health is not optimal, and so on …

Today is not the end …

If we still have breath in our lungs, we and life and everything and everyone in it still have time. There is still hope! It is not over yet!

stop looking at the reality of today as the reality of an eternity …

Whatever is our reality today can still change. Today is not the reality of tomorrow, of eternity. We still need to live in today, be thankful for today and pray for tomorrow.

God is still working things out

He is still on it! He has not given up, nor does he necessarily have the same timeline that we do. The final product may look very different than our dreams, but God does have a final product in mind … we need to pray that our mind is his mind.

God’s love for us is greater than we can reciprocate. It is for success and fulfillment that is beyond earthly ambitions. His goal is that all of his children come to Him.

We need to remember that :

“We don’t yet see things clearly.
We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.”

Our imperfect vision is impaired today. We may not be able to see clearly, but we can live faithfully, trusting that the God who creates, sustains and redeems is still on it … one his timeline, and in his way.

“But it won’t be long before the weather clears
and the sun shines bright!
We’ll see it all then,
see it all as clearly as God sees us”

And to that, all we can say is “amen”.

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Only Love

Posted in Faith, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #apostlepaul, #chooselove, #hatedestroys, #onlylove, #philipriteman, #walkinthelight on August 12, 2018| 1 Comment »

While watching the news, a few days ago, I learned of a man who died. It was not his age of ninety-six that caught my attention, or that he was a speaker to organizations and to youth for thirty years, or that he came to find home in Newfoundland in 1946.

What caught my attention was something he had said,

“Don’t you ever hate anybody.
By love, you conquer the world.
By hate, you’ll only destroy the world
and you destroy yourself,”

More than platitudes, these were the real-life, words of Philip Riteman … a Jew born in Poland, captured by the Nazis, imprisoned in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Dachau. In 1945 he was liberated, freed by American forces, weighing only seventy-five pounds. In 1946 he found “humanity” in Newfoundland, and in 1979 made his home in Halifax, after expanding his import business there.

One would think that, if anyone does, he had good reason to hate (having lost all of his immediate and over eighteen of his extended family to the Nazis). But, this man who was so dramatically affected, in every conceivable way, by hatred, spent (at least) his final thirty years teaching people to conquer the world with love.

Love is a powerful force, but to have the ability, as a victim of brutality, to choose love?

Mr. Riteman knew that his survival, after his liberation, was because he chose to focus on something stronger, something more beneficial to himself, something that could indeed conquer a world of hatred.

He, of course, is not the only one in history to know about the power of love over hatred.

The Apostle Paul, in 1 John 2:9-12, also speaks of love and hate, in terms of light and darkness:

“Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.

I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus’ name.”

He gives us the comparison of hatred to the dark, love to light. And, like Mr. Riteman, Paul understood the force of hatred, for, in his previous life, he had lived in the darkness of hatred, killing the followers of Christ with the hope of eradicating the Earth of them … like the Nazi’s who did the same to the Jews. But, like Riteman, he learned that it is not hatred, but love that can conquer the world.

In his commentary, Matthew Henry said of Paul’s experiential learning, “it is the Lord Jesus that is the great Master of love: it is his school (his own church) that is the school of love. His disciples are the disciples of love, and his family must be the family of love.”

May we walk in the light of love, and enlighten our world to how it can keep us from destroying ourselves with hatred.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Does Prayer Make a Difference?

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #beaaron, #doesprayermakeadifference, #gethsemaneprayer, #ipraytochangeme, #jesustaughtustopray, #notmywill, #prayerchangesme, #prayerisrequest, #prayforothers, Prayer on August 9, 2018| 5 Comments »

FullSizeRender It is an age old question …

Does prayer, does praying, make a difference?

I heard a line in the movie Shadowlands, many years ago, that has become my own understanding and belief for why I pray:

“I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

Though I cannot find evidence of CS Lewis actually saying those words, Lewis does lead us to a model for prayer: “for most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model.”

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed “my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39). His request, offered up, to his God and Father, was offered up three times, and was denied. This reality of God not answering Jesus prayerful request, is a reality that we must remember, for if God would deny Jesus … we too will sometimes be denied.

Lewis also reminds us, “prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted.”

At Gethsemane, Jesus also gives us an example of how to make such a request to God in saying “if it is possible” and “not as I will, but as I will but as you will.” I believe that this is what the author of Philippians is referring to when he wrote, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). We need to seek to have the mind of God as we pray, acknowledging that he is the author of life, that his plan is sovereign.

Even those things that we pray that we think could have only a ‘yes’ response, for it to be the ‘godly’ outcome. I remember laying on a hospital bed, awaiting just one more sonogram. I remember praying that God would allow us to see that heart beat, to show his power, to allow us to praise him for a miracle. The following day, recovering from surgery to remove that heart that remained still on the sonogram, as I looked up to the sky, I tried to gripe and complain to him … about his denial of my request, but all I could say were the same words from Gethsemane … “not my will, but yours”.

I can think of recent times when it seemed as though God was silent in response to my crying out to him. Yet, in the days and weeks and months that past, my prayers were indeed being answered, by other people, who God has used as vessels for encouragement, to meet real needs, to cheer on and to be the hands and feet of him. These people, being our Aaron, holding us up to God, so that the enemy would not have the victory.

God’s mind, his will, is never for the enemy to be victorious.

Prayer makes a difference.

It causes us to acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

It is request … and we have to accept that the response to a request is in the hands of the one we ask.

It is submission to the answer.

Prayer of others, for us, is the support that keeps us from failing, that keeps the enemy from victory.

It is an evolution of our human minds to God’s own mind.

I pray to change me, to change my heart and mind and will, but not change the unchangeable God.

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Peace … Storm … Peace … Storm

Posted in Faith, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #godspeace, #mypeace, #peaceafterthestorm, #peaceinthestorm, #peacestormpeacestorm, overcomer on August 7, 2018| 4 Comments »

Snapseed As I climbed into bed, with only the sweet sounds of hubby’s breath, and the waves breaking on the beach outside our window, I whispered a prayer …

“Thank-you God, for this peace after the storm
(pause)
or is this the peace before the storm?”

As I lay there, my thoughts drowning out the sweet sounds of moments ago, I became keenly aware that,

on either side of peace is always a storm
on either side of a storm is always peace

These are realities in life. Like peanut butter and jam, like waves coming in and going out, times of peace and times of storms are realities in our lives, flowing from one to the other unexpected and predictable at the same time.

The one (storms) for all people.

The other (peace) for those who accept it, from the hand of God … always held out to us, never taken away. It can either be accepted or rejected, but it is always offered.

Jesus came to provide that peace in the midst of the storms, the troubles of this world and life. He came to die, so that the hand of God can offer this peace that surpasses our human understanding.

The storms of life come, sometimes like an unexpected flood, sometimes like a dripping faucet. Both bring us to our knees in forfeit, begging for mercy, for saving … for peace.

God offers that peace. Hand stretched out, always in our direction, always within reach. Sometimes even right in the midst of the storm, when the water is creeping to our chins, when it seems that it might just take up down.

“I have told you these things,
so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble (storms).
But take heart!
I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Or, (Carole version):

“Take the peace I am holding out to you.
There will be storms in your life,
but I offer the peace that passes understanding,
so that you do not drown in the storms.”

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Come Away with Me

Posted in Faith, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #away, #comeawaywithme, #goaway, #renewal, #timeaway, Refreshment on August 5, 2018| Leave a Comment »

FullSizeRender As I sat writing (when I should have been preparing for our road trip to our favourite place) the words, “come away with me” kept wafting through my mind.

When they finally took root, I pondered their origin, and remembered they were spoken in the Song of Solomon :

“My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one.” SOS 2:10

It is a most intimate invitation, a seduction of the Beloved to the Lover, it is intended to draw another away to a secluded place, away from the rest of the world, away from the everyday demands on life. It was an invitation to renewal.

But, it is more.

In Mark 6:31, Jesus says to his disciples :

“Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.”

This too was an intimate invitation, in that it was personal, yet spoken to a group of individuals. It was intended to draw them to a secluded place, where they could enjoy rest, refreshment and renewal.

Though it is good to be busy, doing the work that we have been gifted to do, it is also imperative that we go away. Go away to a vacation spot, a retreat, a secluded field, to your door-locked bathroom in a tub full of bubbles. And go with those, with one, closest to you, who you need to reconnect with, rest, refresh, renew and recreate together.

It is in the times when we answer the call to come away with me that we can remember the beauty of together, shared with the God who first called you to come away, with him.

This is his gift of refreshment to us, if only we would hear and answer his call.

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Shower Cap Love

Posted in Marriage, The Hubby, WONDER, tagged #breathoffreshair, #ecclesiastes9:9, #laughteristhebestmedicine, #marriageneedslaughter, #showercaplove, Marriage on August 2, 2018| 3 Comments »

Screen Shot 2018-07-31 at 8.50.57 AM Marriage should never be boring … right?

So, I recently learned something about my hubby of nearly twenty-nine years, and it all started with an invite to a shower (no, not a bridal shower … the one in the bathroom) … is that too much information? Probably … oh well …

So, he was heading to the shower and I said, quite innocently, “can I pop in too?”

His response was … typical (I am NOT going to define that), followed by a shocking comment, “as long as you don’t wear that shower cap”.

Truly the floor fell out from beneath my feet.

I mean I had just gotten it (new house, new shower cap) and it was so nice to replace the one with the broken elastic that could easily have been replaced with a Ziplock freezer bag, with better results.

What followed was a hysterical conversation about how … uninspiring my (pretty) (new) (practical) shower cap was, in his eyes.

This was a breath-of-fresh air, humorous sharing that felt so good … so … not serious.

Sometimes marriage can become all about the decisions, the hard stuff, the heart-breaking stuff, the mundane stuff. Sometimes marriage just needs laughter that is inspired by something unimportant and silly. Sometimes marriage just needs giggles about something that no one else would understand. That laughter is from a place that is deeper and more intimate than any other words or act.

“Live happily with the woman (man) you love
through all the meaningless days of life
that God has given you under the sun.
The wife (hubby) God gives you
is your reward for all your earthly toil.”
Ecclesiastes 9:9

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Use What Your Daddy Gave You

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #accepthumanhelptoo, #faithandworks, #godgivesuswhatweneed, #godwilltakecareofus, #takethehandthatsoffered, #useyourbrain, #youcandoit on July 31, 2018| 2 Comments »

Screen Shot 2018-07-30 at 6.50.07 AM We have all heard a story similar to this one:

A flood has happened and a man is on his roof, awaiting saving.

A boat comes by and tells him to climb on, but the man yells, “God is gonna save me.”

Then a helicopter drops a rope for him to grab, but the man yells, “God is gonna save me.”

When he, eventually, drowns and gets to heaven, he says to God, “I guess it was my time to die.”

God replies, “you’re not supposed to be here. I sent a boat and a helicopter.”

This and other similar stories highlight two messages we often hear about the will of God; that he will take care of our needs, and that he has given us the resources to take care of ourselves.

Often, when I am confronted with a difficult decision to make, or working through a struggle of some sort, I tend to throw my hands up in the air, look up to the sky (or ceiling) and say, “I give up. You deal with this.”

Sometimes that is exactly what I needed to do, for I might have been trying to make that decision or solve a problem completely on my own steam.

Then there are other times, when I tend to freeze, and hope and pray that he will make all of my decisions, and that all I need is to have faith.

I have come to realize that the right response is somewhere in between, for God will take care of all of our needs and he has provided for, and within us, resources to make our decisions and to do what must be done.

James 2:17 reminds us, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

God’s desire is that we put our faith in him, for all things. At the same time, he has gifted us with knowledge and ability to do for ourselves, to do for others.

We need to use the gifts and resources (from within and out) that God has given us, from our hands, to our minds, to our backs, to our hearts, to the hand offered by another person.

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Keep It Simple, Stupid

Posted in Faith, Guest Post, life, WONDER, tagged #believeandbebaptised, #convictioncomesfromtruth, #easiepeasie, #k.i.s.s., #keepitsimple, #keepitsimplestupid, #repentandbebaptised, #simpleisbest on July 29, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Screen Shot 2018-07-28 at 9.38.04 PM I cannot remember when or where I heard it, but I doubt I will ever forget the acronym K.I.S.S. for Keep It Simple Stupid.

Life can get easier when we replace the confusing with the clear, the complicated with the simple.

When the Christian church first began, in a most unexpected way, there was a K.I.S.S principle that was loud and clear (though maybe a bit smokey).

It began at Pentecost, when all who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks were (literally) lit by the Holy Spirit.

This is what Christian community was birthed from, and it wasn’t without it’s doubters, as some thought that those speaking in the tongues of other nations were simply a little too full of the liquid spirits.

There are always cynics, always doubters.

The apostle Peter addressed the crowd, explaining the legitimacy of what was happening in terms of the prophesies of Joel, and the prophecies of their very own David, who shared the bloodline of their very own Messiah and Savior.

When the people heard the reference to their David, “they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

This is conviction, and …

conviction of truth always makes us willing to do something.

Now, here’s a bit of bad news for those who teach and preach …

conviction does not come from the messenger,
but from the source of truth

Awhile back I watched an interview between Woody Allen and Billy Graham. As one might imagine it was a conversation of opposites in so many ways. It was also a conversation of light-hearted laughter … from both individuals. What I was reminded of was that Billy Graham understood and utilized the ultimate source of truth. When a question was asked of him, he did not respond with “I think …” but with “the Bible says …” He understood that it was not his words or thoughts that would convict, but the only source of truth we have at our disposal … the word of God.

And how did Peter respond to the conviction of the people gathered at Pentecost?

“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39)

Peter didn’t pull that message out of his … hat. This was not his instruction for the people gathered, who were to become the early Christian church. This was the message that he received at the feet of Jesus himself … Jesus who is the truth incarnate.

For it was when the raised-from-the-dead Jesus commissioned his disciples that the truth of the instruction for conviction was given:

“Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

There were no baptismal or membership classes to take, for this challenge was between truth that convicts, and the individual who is hearing the truth … with clarity that no other teacher or preacher can deliver.

Conviction is the igniting of the spark of the Holy Spirit

The passage, in Acts, ends with an alter call to be baptized, “and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” (Acts 2:41)

They believed, and were baptized

It was that simple … it is that simple.

If we are convicted by truth, our conviction must cause us to do something. The next step is not dependent on first getting the whole of our lives in order. It does not require us to first cleanse our lives of every sin, or attend a class.

The Bible tells us what that when we experience such a conviction we simply must repent, and be baptized. Easie peasie. No perfection required, just obedience.

This is keeping things simple … K.I.S.S. principle, simple.

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Get Real

Posted in GOD, life, Love, WONDER, tagged #getreal, #godlslovemakesusreal, #godslove, #iamreal, #lovedunconditionally, #sacrificiallove, #trulyloved, #velveteenrabbit on July 26, 2018| 2 Comments »

Screen Shot 2018-07-26 at 8.01.09 AM

I am a big fan of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit. Though I did not read this story until I was an adult, and a mother myself, I would have to say it had a profound effect on my life, how I think, how I live.

It is the story of what it is to be real, and how one becomes real

… by being truly loved.

One of my favourite parts (and there are many) is when the Skin Horse explains to the Velveteen Rabbit what real means: “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

There was something in that message that spoke to my young mama heart, and it transformed how I lived, how I saw the experience of living … real living.

As I look back now, I think I understand why that message penetrated my heart.

As a stereotypical first born individual, I was a seeker of perfection, of pleasing others, of doing what is expected of me. That worked well for me as a child and a teen, but adults know well that there is no perfect formula for living that will draw the perfect, desired results.

Sometime, life is hard.

Sometimes, life does not work out perfectly.

It was as I began to internalize the message of the Velveteen Rabbit that, bit by bit, I began to allow my worn bits to show. I did not hide the reality of life and living to others around me. Not overnight changes, but, like the Velveteen Rabbit, slowly, through the years.

Just the other day I laughed at myself … like great big belly laugh … in front of a cashier in a store, for some silly thing I had said or done. As I was laughing at myself I realized that I would not have done that when I was a teen, a young adult. Instead I would have interpreted my error as failure, I would have hung my head in shame and embarrassment, hiding my flaws and foibles so that no one would know that I made mistakes …

… that I was real.

Learning to be really real, learning to embrace the lack of decorum, the kinks in our armour, the flaws in our personalities, is what it is to be authentic, to be real. And we are all real! We just aren’t all comfortable in the fact that being real is to embrace the good, the bad and the ugly, that we all really are.

Those years ago, when I discovered the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, it was then that I realized that, like the boy in the story, it is God who truly loves us. It is he who made us real, it is he who love us for who we really are … not who we think we need to become. And when we learn to accept the price of his love for us (the sacrifice of his own son), it is then that we become real to others around us.

“If you stick with this, living out what I tell you,
you are my disciples for sure.
Then you will experience for yourselves the truth,
and the truth will free you.”
Jesus
(John 8:31-32)

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