Time for Feasting

I've been reading The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg thanks to the recommendation of my dear friend Bea Ward.  I have really been enjoying it, but one of the chapters made a particular impact on me this week as we prepare for campers to come on Monday. Chapter Four is called "A 'Dee Dah Day': The Practice of Celebration. In this chapter he includes a passage from G.K. Chesterton that I thought was superb.  Here's what it says:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, "Do it again"; and the grownup person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grownup people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening "Do it again" to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are.

I love those thoughts, but the idea that really caught my fancy from this chapter was this.  In the Old Testament, God commanded both days of feasting and days of fasting.  The days of feasting were every bit as important as the days of fasting.  That is because God is a God who is characterized by joyfulness and loves celebration.  The days of feasting were prescribed because God wants us to take some dedicated time to gather with people we love, eat, drink, sing and dance.

For the kids who come to camp, this is their week of "feasting."  It's our job to lead them in celebrating.  And it's our great responsibility to lead them to see that the focus of our celebration is the Big, Awesome God that we serve.

John Ortberg further says, "When we celebrate, we exercise our ability to see and feel goodness in the simplest gifts of God.  We are able to take delight in something we wouldn't have even noticed yesterday."

So these next few weeks we will be doing this holy work, this work of joyful celebration.  We will be rejoicing in "the simplest gifts of God" as they are revealed in this spectacular location, and helping kids to learn to do the same.

There will be "choice foods" at our feast, as well as singing, dancing, and playing.

And laughter...there will be lots of laughter.

Let the feast begin!!!

Salute to My Dad

Dad's 80th Birthday Party

On this Father's Day, I want to salute my dad.  He turned 80 this year, and we've spent some time looking back at his life.  Here are some of the things we remembered about Dad.

In his youth my dad faced some significant challenges.  At the age of three he was severely burned on one leg in a fire at his home.  His mother was also burned over a significant part of her body, and they were both in the hospital for many months.

Dad also had a lot of trouble with one of his eyes.  He told me he had surgery on it when he was a kid.  His dad took him to the hospital and just dropped him off for the surgery.  No one stayed with him.  That's just how things were back then.  It amazing to think of it today.

When he was dating my mom, he drove her and my aunt and a friend to Kentucky to visit relatives and they had a bad wreck.  A truck crossed the center line and hit them.  My dad had a significant injury to his arm and you can still see the effects of it today.

Through all this I know my dad as someone who overcame these difficulties and who went on to work hard all his life and build a good life for us all.  I am thankful for his perseverance in the face of trials.  As he has grown older he has worked hard to deal with his physical limitations.  He had both knees and one shoulder replaced and worked like a champ to do his rehab and stay as active as he possibly can.   Even now, I don't think he's ever happier than when he's riding his tractor and working in his garden. 

Looking back at Dad's life I am always thankful that he worked so hard to make a good living and a good life for our family.  He worked at a dairy and I often think of him in his white work clothes and paper hat.  I can't open the dairy case at the grocery store without fondly remembering the smell on his clothes when he came home.

Some of my fondest memories of my dad are from the vacations he took us on.  Each year we got to take a fun family vacation.  We went to Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, and Missouri, and our most daring trip took us to the World's Fair in Montreal, Canada in 1967.  After I got married and moved to Tennessee we spent several years vacationing together at Fall Creek Falls where we would get one of the fishermen's cabins.  

I am thankful for a dad who made my childhood so idyllic and who gave me a secure and loving home to grow up in.  I am very thankful he's still around and that he is continues to be at work in my life.  He has been there for me countless times and I love him very much for all he means to me.