“Sir,
is it true that if you pee in the river it turns red, and a fish will swim up
your butt?”
Yes, I was actually asked this
question by an enthusiastic young camper at the end of morning teaching today,
a wonderful lesson that underscored the ways in which Camp Capers, with all of
its natural goodness, is one of those great spiritually nourishing places God
has provided on the earth. Of course I
couldn’t help but chuckle and just shake my head for the young man, but the
question, along with the obvious spirit and humor that underlay it, really
stuck with me.
Humor and imagination are some
of God’s finest territories. Neither is
permitted in Hell. Screwtape, one of the
Devil’s senior henchmen in C. S. Lewis Screwtape
Letters, writes of the “sheer austerity of Hell.” It is a place where there is no room for
mirth or flights of fancy. Not true of
Camp Capers. This is a place that inspires
exactly what the Screwtapes of the spiritual universe fear the most. Children are not only allowed but even encouraged
to take risks with their imaginations and their laughter. Just in the last 24 hours, I have witnessed
more funny jokes, more wild art, more extravagant and beautiful dance, and more
unbridled creative energy than I usually encounter in a year. Yes, Camp Capers is a place where Good Sam
kids feel safe and open enough to do all the things and ask all the questions
far too silly for the sheer austerity of their usual surroundings. They can even ask about rivers turning red
and fish swimming up rear ends.
This is how people, children
and adults alike, grow closer to God. By
losing their fear of being authentically themselves, they also lose their
resistance to standing in the presence of the One that made them. They experience in their souls and bodies the
grace of God in Christ that knows and loves them exactly as they are, and from
there they are open to being formed and grown into something even more
wonderful and divine than they already are.
- Andy Lobban
- Andy Lobban
No comments:
Post a Comment