Whew!
These last 36 hours have felt like three days. The students arrived and it has been non stop ever since. It is so amazing my capacity to forget what Camp is like…or I am just getting old and unable to keep up…no comments about that please =).
So, the theme of camp is “story” and we are talking about the story of God. The first night we looked at story and how most of our life is filled with stories. We watch them on screens and televisions. We listen to them within a song. We read them in books (ok, so not very many students read for fun these days - accept the Harry Potter Books). When we meet people, it is their “story” we are trying to understand: where did you come from, what do you like…etc. God has a story, too. Each good story has elements within it: Plot-Conflict-Climax-Resolution. These are the general titles of our sessions from here on out. And so many people just have a few snippets of the story and assume they know His story…or live confused, apathetic, or in-and-out of God’s story. So, this week at camp, we are asking God and taking time to step inside of His story - and understand the Plot-Conflict-Climax-Resolution. Because when you understand His story it dramatically changes the way you live yours.
Day 2 started with a morning session - Plot: the “fence” of the story that contains the main idea, characters, and the intended goal. We introduced the three movies we will be using to help us understand these elements. In God’s story - we visited Genesis 1. We read about a Creator, a provider, and someone who uniquely created us in His Image (Imago Dei). Our culture is always telling us that we need to look prettier, better clothing, insisting that we change our features to replicate the impossible. When we begin to understand Imago Dei and God’s story - when we look in the mirror and say “I hate X about me” in a sense we are saying to God “I don’t like the story you have written”. So, step one into God’s story is understanding that He created us (Psalm 139), that everything he creates is intended for good, and that He loves to provide and care for us.
Day 2p.m. we talked about Conflict. We looked at Genesis 3…where sin enters God’s story. We talked about how God created us and loves us so much - that he intended us for much good. But, we reject His story and set out to write our own. We looked at the 10 commandments and took a personal inventory of how we were doing…and no one made it out innocent…because no one is. When we reject God’s story, that means we have selected separation from God as our modus operandi. We cannot just say, “Oh, I love God” and assume he will just forget about the way we live. Sin=Conflict with God and His story. It puts us at odds with Him and ultimately leads to an eternity without Him. And so last night the room was “intense” and filled with tension as they left trying to answer the question: how will we get back into His story?
…to be continued
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His Word is chock full and I love it! I get the impression that you are presenting it in a way that they’ll feel pretty uncomfortable and that’s fantastic. I prayed as I walked this morning that their hearts would not be distracted but softened and convicted. I prayed for order not chaos. I prayed that they’d see the scarlet letters of love in the wonderment of His Word! Keep at it and thank you for posting!
Mother Crane (Leslie)
Comment by Leslie — June 18, 2008 @ 5:40 pm