Camp

I think I was a first grader the first time I went to camp.  A Sunday School teacher took a group for an overnight trip to Camp Waccamaw, which was on Lake Waccamaw in southeastern NC.  When I was a little older, I also went to camp with my church to a camp in the mountains of NC.  Each summer I would spend at least a week at the Wilds, close to Brevard, NC, and the week would be filled with hiking and recreation and Bible studies and worship.  I loved every minute of camp, and it was at camp that God worked in my life in a significant way.

Several years ago I surveyed several hundred Baptist pastors in NC and VA and I asked about their call to ministry and ordination.  Of all the pastors who told me about their call to ministry, many of those mentioned how important a camp experience was in God calling them to vocational ministry as well as to take a step forward in their faith walk.

Next week May Memorial will have a group of children and a group of youth attending Passport Camps.  Beverley and I are taking the children to Passport at Eagle Eyrie, and Constance, Brooks Ann, and Parker Meade are taking the youth to Averett University for Passport Missions.  It takes a lot of work and money to go to camp.  Carla began planning for children’s camp months ago, and Constance started planning for youth camp in the Fall of 2016.  Many people at May Memorial have made donations so our young people can go to camp, and we have a significant monetary investment in the week.  Considering all of the work, and all of the money, I want to be clear: it is worth all of it. 

Sending kids to camp is one of the most important things we do, and I am thankful that May Memorial sees to it that our children have this opportunity.

I am also delighted that Ashley Edwards, our new Minister of Youth and Children, will be spending time with both the youth and with the children during their weeks at camp.  She will be going with Beverley and me to Eagle Eyrie and after a couple of days there will be traveling to Averett from there to spend time with the youth.  This is a great way for Ashley to start building relationships with our youth and children, and there is no better time to join with the youth and children of MMBC than at camp.

Be in prayer for the adults and campers who will be away next week.  Pray for their safety, but also pray that hearts will be open for hearing God’s voice.  

When Wrong...Promptly Admitted It

When I was 16 years old I began my first job working at the local funeral home.  I did everything from putting up tents, cutting grass, opening graves, working visitations and funerals, removals (in funeral home lingo this means picking up a deceased person’s body and bringing it back to the funeral home), cleaning, and general errands “as needed.”  I worked after school each day, weekends, and full days during the summer.  There was one particular day, a Saturday, when I had started work early in the morning by washing cars getting ready for two funerals.  I worked both of the funerals, one that morning and one that afternoon, and the only thing on my mind was getting off that evening and a date I had made with our current Minister of Music.

            We were finishing up at the cemetery when my boss told me that the family from the early funeral called and they wanted their potted plants delivered to their house that evening.  I was tired, I was ready to leave, and I was ready to go out that night.  I was not happy.  It was already after five, but I made plans to deliver the flowers.  I’m not sure how fast I drove to that house, but that I didn’t get a ticket is a miracle.  I arrived at the house in Mt. Olive, threw the van in reverse, screeched to a halt in front of the carport, and began furiously unloading the plants.  A man came out and spoke to me, I probably mumbled something back, not wanting to slow down.  After everything was unloaded I jumped back in the van and sped away.

            I didn’t think anything else about it, until the following week.  When I got to work that afternoon my boss and his son, also a funeral director, asked to talk to me.  They told me that the fellow from the house, the deceased person’s son, had called and was very upset.  He said that “a teenage boy showed up and practically threw the flowers under his carport.”  They asked me what happen, and they asked me if I was willing to call and talk to the gentleman who complained.  Later that day I made the call.  By that time (and even before that time) I knew that I had made a mistake.  I had not behaved properly, and I knew that I was wrong.  I was more concerned about that night’s date than that grieving family, and this came through in my behavior.  On the phone I told the man that I was wrong, that I made a mistake, that I was in a hurry, but that I had no excuse.  I was asked to make that call, but I was sincere.  The man heard me well, and he forgave me.  I know that my boss was looking for it to be made right so he wouldn’t lose a family’s business in the future, but for me I was taking responsibility for my actions.

            It was just before midnight this past Thursday night and my family and I rode by that house on the way to visit my parents.  They house looks the same, the carport is still there.  As I thought about that day and that phone call it is a reminder to me that mistakes are a part of living.  But mistakes can also be corrected and made right.  That was not my first mistake, and it certainly was not my last.  But for every mistake amends can be made.

            Twelve step programs teach that it is important to “keep short lists” of wrongs that we have done.  The wording states “…and when we were wrong we promptly admitted it.”  Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean that we are perfect.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t make mistakes.  Sometimes we make big mistakes.  But God forgives us, and we have the power to accept responsibility and set things right.

            After the phone call that day I felt a little lighter than before.  I knew that I had done everything I could do to make things right.  I felt forgiven.

Muskrats

            In the early 1970’s the author Annie Dillard spent time close to Roanoke and as a result of her time there came Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  It is part spiritual roadmap, part scientific journal, and part geographical narrative of that section of the Virginian mountains and valleys.  I have been re-reading this wonderful book over the past few weeks, and there are passages that I read that I can hardly wait to tell someone about.  The book is full of interesting facts.  She discusses everything from Osage Orange Trees (one of which is in front of Mabel’s Restaurant in the village) to Mantises to the seasons of the year.  She talks about the flooding that came to Virginia after hurricane Agnes in 1972, and she talks about how the lights went out in Richmond after this catastrophic event.

            Perhaps the strongest theme in Dillard’s scientific/spiritual narrative is the need to slow down, stop, and be aware of what is around you.  Early in the book she asks the question of how long it took for the first humans to figure out that the seasons of the year are cyclical.  On a winter day they knew it was cold, and on a summer day they knew it was hot.  But how long would it take them to put together that there was a regular span of time that separates the cold days from the hot days and the greening of the trees to the dying of the leaves.  Of course God told humankind about the seasons, but how long would it take humankind, without God’s instruction, to figure this out.

            She also discusses the muskrat.  The muskrat is actually very similar to a beaver, only smaller, and is not a rat at all.  Dillard had a great desire to see a muskrat swimming down Tinker Creek, but in spite of all of her efforts she was not able to find one.  And then, on one particular day, she happened to be standing still at just the right time at just the right place.  She was noticing what was going on around her, and she saw one.  After this she began to learn where they would appear, and she started noticing them more and more after she got in the habit of finding them.  “After that I knew where they were in numbers, and I knew when to look.”

            The ability to be still and pay attention is indispensable for the person who wants to know God.  God is a God who speaks and appears and interacts with His creatures, but we are so busy and unobservant that we often miss God when God appears in our lives.

            As we move toward Summer, churches like ours scale our activities and schedules back a bit.  This is in part a response to vacations and family activities, but we also slow down to provide space for rest and renewal.  God created us in a way that rest is as essential to work.  We are created in God’s image, and after the Creative Week God took time to rest.  God’s Son also was in the habit of taking time away, in prayer and rest, to find solitude and renewal in his Father’s presence.

            If we do the same, we will experience God’s presence in our lives.  It doesn’t come to us by working harder or smarter or trying to keep more rules or keeping up a good effort.  What is requires is letting go of the world’s distractions and clearing space so that we may notice God around us.