Rest

Sunday… a day set apart by our Creator to rest. What a glorious concept!

A life without rest is hard for me to imagine, just as a life without work is hard to imagine. We are created to work, and work done well is a joy to the heart. We are also created to have regular periods of rest… thus at camp we make sure that one day in seven is set apart for this purpose.

We let the girls sleep in if they like (though most choose to gather at the track for our 8:00 Stumblers Running Club), serve a buffet breakfast, have a nice long shower and get dressed up for Sunday School and Church. Big Southern Dinner (what folks around here call lunch on Sunday), long rest hour, free activities in the afternoon, picnic dinner, concert on the lawn. It is a great day!

In many ways the summer months are our “work months”, providing the challenge and the satisfaction of a difficult task as we work from dawn to dark to care for a large and complex community. They also provide my most poignant moments of rest in the entire year. An afternoon nap is never so enjoyable nor a trip to the movie theater more delightful. Simply getting in my car and driving to town provides a moment of joy that is hard to describe. The work intensifies the rest.

And so it is with Sundays. I find Sunday to be a time of sublime peace and inspiration, a blessing to my soul in a way that is more poignant for the intense work that defines the rest of the week. We all LOVE the break in the routine. Sunday School by cabin groups, Church with the entire camp… these are highlights of the day and pleasing to God. The slow afternoon is soaked up by all (about half of the camp will just lounge in the cabin area) and the evening concert will be wonderfully laid back.

Jillian Edwards will be playing her guitar solo by the lake as the sun drops low in the sky and we bask in the glow of our first week at camp. I love these concerts. Sometimes they are awe inspiring, they are always memorable. We have been booking quality musicians for enough years that our reputation amongst the contemporary Christian groups is pretty good. Pray for good weather… the concert will be better if it is outside rather than in the pavilion!

Thank you for checking in. It has been a wonderful week, we are already anticipating the next!

Jimboy