The Secret to the Kingdom of God

So I have tried to sit down and write this reflection for a few days now, my first thought when I got home was not about the fact I had not slept for over 36 hours, but that I needed to reflect before I forgot all the ways God moved in my life and the life of my friends this past week.

My thoughts are so jumbled together and I still cannot seem to put them into words. Nothing brings people closer together like camp does: cold showers, swing sets, all night bonfires, hikes that leave you sore three days later, food that tastes like we stopped at a five star restaurant, worship that drives you to your knees and persists even when you lose your voice.

You praise God for the rain because it drive you into the Main Deck for worship earlier so then you worship twice as long or you spend eight hours a day studying the book of Mark, more in depth than anything you have ever studied at school.

Or when your leader just up and leaves you and your group for four hours trying to figure out the secret to the Kingdom of God.

A senior friend of mine was doing a prayer seminar, after her day of silence we were on the beach talking about how God had been moving in our lives so far and she made the comment that the Holy Spirit is always with us, but that he had been continually dwelling in this camp for over 50 years, moving in the lives of campers and staff constantly.

You can’t go to CBS and not encounter a truly living God.

On my first trip to CBS fall of ‘09 I was left with this understanding: all of the rocks on the shore were so dusty and monotone, yet those that were steeped in the water had such beautiful colors. Yet there the only difference between the rocks on the shore and those in the water was the water itself. I realized that we need to be those rocks in the water, in order for our colors to shine to their fullest.

That is still true to this day.

See at camp we invented the Daughters of Lightning, learned what it meant to be beside yourself, and I even learned to throw a football, but do you realize that Jesus is not only God, but also part man? Or that the disciples were first called to be with God before anything else they did, and that even when they spend 24/7 with Jesus they still don’t realize who they are with. That sometimes their hearts were hardened like the Pharisees. cliff hanger much?

See, the secret of the Kingdom of God is available to anyone who asks for understanding from God, it is for those who lean no on their own understanding but in everything they do petition the Lord.

As I start this new quarter (You just lost the game.) I look forward to pressing closer to my heavenly father and being a curious learner seeking transformation. Just because I am not still at Catalina, does not mean the journey is over.