Faith

‘’So............run along home and jump into bed, say your prayers and cover your head. There’s just one more thing I ask you to do; you pray for me and I’ll pray for you.’’
 
That’s what we sing at the end of campfire right before we head up for snacks and board games at Family Camp at Camp Burton.
 
Somewhere there must be words to describe the experience of Family Camp. But it would take way more than 800-1,000 words to do it.
 
We all love family and recreation and singing, chicken football and tie dye. Our kids have grown up together and then they have kids and bring them. We all have huge piles of dirty laundry by the end of the week and we all take home a piece of string from the goodbye circle.
 
I was doing airport runs for early departers so Caity delivered my piece to me. It’s tied in a bow around the rear view mirror. Tie a yellow string around the old rear view mirror....
 
Two things bind us together; history and faith. We’ve shared so much history: babies, infertility, marriages, divorces, the death of children, the birth of grandchildren. We have tragedies out of nowhere and miracle healings that were more than we could have hoped for.
 
Faith gets us through. We all know there is a bigger picture than this oh so concrete world. We know God loves us.
 
I sleep in my own bed and just do meals and activities for a number of reasons. There have only been two years that I have had the luxury of not working bits and pieces of my day gig and been fully present there.
 
This year I arrived at camp on my last nerve. The time period 2012-2013 was, for me the most extreme experience of being touched by the worst humanity has to offer six ways from heaven ( pardon the pun ) ever. Deceit, greed, larceny, perjury, dependency...aughhh! I felt dirty and nauseas and achingly fatigued. People who were scared to death so they were moving through life with duck tape and a hammer, others who fancied themselves authorities who lived in tightly woven cocoons of judgement. I drove to camp believing the human race was a goner.
 
People with faith who live their faith and surrender the big picture to the knowledge they are greatly loved by God don’t have any need to lie and cheat and steal. Life is a grand positive adventure to them. Even the hard parts.
 
And so we cheer weight losses and graduations and new jobs and risky opportunities and comebacks and start ups. Not because it’s politically correct or because someone has money or so we won’t be judged. We cheer and celebrate, grieve and recover because we know any one event or relationship is not the whole story. We know you love people and trust God.
 
A miracle happened at camp for me. My enjoyment of humanity returned. I had more of a desire to pray for the underbelly of human behavior that had slithered over and slimed my life. I remembered people are only desperate and deceitful and greedy and malevolent when they aren’t experiencing love. Real love. It leads to faith and faith helps you relax and do the right thing big picture wise.
 
Keep the faith or ask for it for the first time. Renewed and refreshed I return to daily life seeing the good and the kind and the joyful!
 
 Love, Deborah