Camping

We went camping as a family for the first time this past weekend to celebrate my son's 8th birthday. Advice: don't choose a 100 degree day for your first camping trip! Advice Two: Make sure your wife actually brings the tent you are supposed to sleep in!!

One of the amenities this camp site had, yes, amenities, there must be some, was what they called a comfort station. Let's just say that a shower after 12 hours of 100 degrees makes the name comfort station seem too inadequate to express the relief one can find from cold running water. Being in the water, at the comfort station brought a profound thought to me. Am I a comfort station to people around me? I began to think of all the people I come in contact with every day, strangers, acquaintances, and friends alike...is my presence refreshing, rejuvenating, comforting? It should be. Jesus certainly was. If you were within His reach, their was comfort to be had. I want my life to be that, don't you?

So, back to the tent...did I mention that my wife packed the tent she was sleeping in? It was four person tent, just the right size for mom and the three children! I slept out under the night sky, sounds chivalrous doesn't it! Amazingly, there were no bugs, still can't figure that one out. I'm counting it towards divine intervention! It actually wasn't that bad until I was awakened by a noise of some sort. Since it was a full moon, you didn't feel too terribly vulnerable. You could see quite well. There at the foot of my air mattress, yes we did have air mattresses, unfortunately not tempurpedic!, was a raccoon I'm quite certain was big enough to star in a movie entitled, "The Raccoon That Ate Lake Anna State Park." It was massive. I hurled some rocks at that didn't seem to phase it at all. I then reached for my aluminum bat, yes, that along with an air mattress are a great comfort combo, and my flashlight. I had this picture of being stitched up in the Emergency Room telling the attendant, "...well you see, there was this raccoon..." He shuffled away as I stood up...more came later throughout the night however, one actually opened our cooler! I'm sure those campsites are a buffet throughout the year for the raccoon population there. I got me thinking though. What kind of critters do have in my life? Have I grown accustomed to, tolerating, gotten used to, anything in my life that is robbing me. Maybe it seems harmless, maybe it seems not too terribly threatening, maybe even a little humorous, but ultimately a consuming presence. Holy Spirit, is there anything like that in me?

My last reflection from our trip was that they had comment cards to fill out. Cards on which you could make suggestions, share ideas, give feedback. If we had one of those attached to us, open to anyone who may want to take one and pass on some thoughts to us, about us, what would they write? What would we find characterizes us? How would others define us? We can learn a lot about ourselves through the experiences of others who are with us. Maybe you know some friends who would be willing to do something like this for you. Make up some comment cards...heck "borrow" one from somewhere and copy it. Ask some close friends to fill it out and be honest in what they write. One of the great gifts of friendship is the voice it is into our lives, revealing our blind spots, making it possible for us to change...Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "Be ye therefore perfect." We won't ever get all the way there, but let's endeavor to get closer and closer throughout our days.

Pastor Fred