Back in my youth, during the summers, my older brothers and I spent a lot of time at sports camps. So much that there was a gentleman in town who would call us ‘camper’ every time he saw us. He was the basketball camp director, so we actually referred to him as camper as well. That led us to start referred to everything we did in the summer as some sort of camp. If we had to paint a room – it was ‘paint camp’. If we had to work on someone’s yard it was ‘mowing camp’. Eventually if we felt someone needed to learn something in detail, we would say ‘looks like you need to go to ‘dishwasher unloading camp’ or ‘math camp’ or ‘how to be quiet camp’. It seems that is what camps are – a time to get away and focus on one specialized idea or concept.
Well, tomorrow I am heading off to camp, and I get to speak to a bunch of elementary and junior high children about ‘Living Out Loud’. During my preparations for this bit, I stumbled over these words in Philippians.
4Always be glad because of the Lord! I will say it again: Be glad. 5Always be gentle with others. The Lord will soon be here. 6Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. 7Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.
Can you think of a better way to Live out Loud than to emulate these words from Paul? Maybe its time we head off to ‘gladness camp’ and ‘gentleness camp’ or ‘peace camp’?
More ideas about this ‘camp’ concept next week… if I can keep my focus – maybe I need to go to ‘focus camp’.