frozen.

June 25, 2012

Day one of summer camp is upon us. The camp is filled with the sound of children singing and laughing and it feels so right. Camp is not about quiet, dormant seasons. It has them, and beautifully, but right now, camp is what it was made to be.

There are so many familiar little faces running around camp; Jazzy, Amanda, Kateresa to name a few. I have plenty of small friends who give me love and joy and through whom I see Jesus.

The sun is out and my spirits are high even though I am wearing the first of many staff shirts that match everyone else.

~ SO

This weekend I went to the young adult retreat at camp and thought about that journal entry as I was driving. I thought about the cold, hard ground and the chill in the air. The big tree without its leaves. The barren field.

And I cried for the campers. The thousands I’ve been at camp with, and the thousands yet to come.

I wish camp could be year round so that in the cold winter, when your hands get chapped and your lips are dry, we could drink hot chocolate and sleep in cabins with the heaters on. The cold would make it impossible to run around outside, so we’d have to stay in the safety of our cabin groups huddled together for warmth. Not just physical, but emotional and especially spiritual.

Yesterday I wondered how many campers from the past summer would spend any part of their weekend in tears. How many of them feel alone, lonely or deserted. How many of them are grateful for a new year because they have not yet been to camp for 2013. There’s something to look forward to.

When I got to camp, I quietly went to the Lake. It was covered in ice, and I wept.

So many hearts are frozen over right now. Hearts that should be home to laughter, adventure and trust. Not just campers, but staff members. My friends who have never been to camp. People all over the world.

It is important for us to all enter into “the dark night of the soul,” a time of crisis and emptiness in our faith.
It is important.

Christ had a dark night of the soul while he carried a cross to be hung on. A time of abandonment, a time when no sun shines and the still waters freeze over and we are chilled to the bone.

While I poked the lake with a stick, I realized the sun was warm on my arm.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The radiance of the sun still shone. The ice on the lake did not negate the warmth and power of the sun.

The same can be said for us in our irrational seasons. The temperature may drop, the ground will freeze and leaves will fall.. but just beyond the fog that slows us and the clouds that cover us.. is the sun.

In due time, the sun will break through. The ground will soften. The lake will melt. Leaves will sprout.

And then it will be June 25th. We will walk into the rightness of a moment that needed the wintering season to be appreciated.

So thankful for what God teaches me on the white bench by the lake.