A New Day
I can tell that we are entering the home stretch of the Main Camp race… this “sense” arises every year in a predictable fashion:
- We get tired. While still waking up with a sense of anticipation and joyful glee, we find ourselves sleeping soundly at rest hour and glad to hear the taps bugle blow. We sometimes act like we are tired too (little cabin arguments arise over little things).
- We get emotional (probably related to being tired). This is true for me too… I am famous for just barely holding it together in the final week of camp. This raw emotion arose, unexpectedly, at Breakfast Club today as I talked about Physical Beauty (the last of the talks on Physical growth).
I have three daughters. I run a very big camp that “specializes” in teenage girls. My perspective (which I bet a lot of you share) is that our girls are in trouble. The trouble often comes despite the wonderful family situations, church situations, and abundant gifts that they have. There is no reason for this trouble, it is just part of the “zeitgeist” (spirit of the age). What is that spirit (as I see it)?
It is a spirit arising from our humanistic and materialistic worldview. I do not speak of the greedy need for more stuff but the need for physical perfection. We all know of the big stink that arose when Mike Jeffries, the Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, said the truth: that their customers are the “cool” not “fat” teenagers. The fact is, Madison Avenue agrees with this hierarchy… and most of us have bought into it as well.
To prove they are “cool” and “thin” enough to shop at the “cool” stores, our girls are encouraged to show as much skin as possible, to exude as much sexuality as possible, to drink, to smoke, to wear smaller and smaller clothes sizes… and they find that they do not live up to the “standard”. Girls get mean with each other, and don’t even get me started on the boys (who are encouraged to assume a perpetual adolescent mindset). The end result is that we find that what the girls want more than anything at camp is to just “get away” from the need to fit in with the world.
So Breakfast Club was about accepting the bodies that we have been given. To recognize that God, who knit us together in the womb to be exactly the way we physically are, does not make mistakes. We eat well, exercise well, and live lives that show growth in all the facets (physical, mental, social and spiritual)… by doing so we actually have a Great Day Every Day despite our circumstances… including the fact that we are not physically perfect.
Isaiah 53 says that Jesus was despised and rejected by man, that he was not a handsome man. He certainly would not have been a target customer at Abercrombie & Fitch… but HE COULD HAVE BEEN IF HE WANTED. Jesus could have assumed any body type, any face… but he knit his body into a un-desirable shape… to teach us a lesson. Beauty is a blessing, but it is also an idol. I fear that this idol has a subliminal grip on our children and on us as well.
So tears well up. I so wish that words could change this devastating misconception, my desire is heart breaking in its intensity. The good news is that I think camp helps (actually, I think that God helps and does so at camp every summer). The counselors, the campers, the ministers, and the visiting artists all contribute brush strokes to the painting or threads to the tapestry. Later on we will see the truth of this experience (maybe not till heaven), but in the meantime I find hope in the little sprigs of growth in many young lives.
David Fisks sermon yesterday was profound and good… helpful in this growth. You should listen to it… on Jesus quieting the storm. Love it. Drew and Ellie last night was good (and delightful). Ellie’s devotion to the girls today was perfectly in synch as well. Things are coming together and they join so perfectly, some would assume that we scripted every word and gesture for the effect. We didn’t. God is pleased to work in this place, and He is Good.
This is going to be a fabulous week. Weather wise (highs in the upper 70’s lows in the upper 50’s… WOW), event wise (Tribal Games tonight, Counselor Talent, Junior Play, Production Night, Water Sports day)… life is good. Everything to look forward to and nothing to dread. Abundant indeed. I just wish it could last longer!
Thank you for reading and for indulging my over emotional state of mind. Maybe I will take rest hour today, a nap is always good medicine.
Jimboy