Shaybe Baby Love

My Observations and Musings
2003-09-30 05:45:57 (UTC)

On the Topic of Car Trips and Deep Thoughts: Originally written in August

What does it mean to be a Christian in today's society? As
I rode in a car with two of my best friends, Stavesacre
blasting on the radio, I wondered that very thought.
Sometimes being a Christian was the last thing I wanted!
It is not very easy standing against the world.
We live outside the world and yet in it at the same time.
It is a never ending fluxing balance, one that for the
most part is hard to maintain.
As Christians we are supposed to live as closely to Christ
as we can. I watch as the world speeds by me now, a
thousand tiny cars on a highway, a thousand tiny people
rushing to get somewhere. I consider who Christ was and is
and what he would think about this highway and the people
on it. I wonder what does he think of us, here in Luis'
jeep, heading towards New Jersey in silence.
We sit in silence because we are tired. The summer we have
spent at Peniel has been one devoid of Christ. I wonder
what Christ thinks of Peniel, a bible camp on the verge of
colapse. I wonder how He feels about the fighting and
worse that go onthere.I wonder how He feels about me and
my place in everything there.
It's raining now. It's been raining all summmer. It has
been one long, rainy, muddy, pain filled expirience at
Peniel.
Peniel stands at the foot of the Adirondack mountains,
where it has stood for the past 70 years. On the 70th
anniversary year of the camp's opening I returned for my
second year as the camp's Day Care Director. I was 19
going on 20 and thought I knew everything there was to
know about Peniel.
The thing I forgot was that Peniel is not a place. Peniel
is an entity created and formed from the people who live
and work there. It is a ever changing living breathing
monster. It can be good or evil.
My job at the camp was both exhausting and exhilerating.
Surrounded everyday from 9-5 with throngs of 5 yr olds, I
tried desparetly to keep my head above the water. Yet my
job, the kids were what kept me coming back.
My friend Amanda had asked me before I came back here why
I would ever return to the place that had almost killed
me. I had only one answer. I handed her a photo album full
of pictures of all the children.
The only other thing that made the camp tollerable was the
friendships that I had found here. Some of my closest
friends were penielers.
Friends like those in the car with me now. Luis and Katie
were two of my closest friends in the world. I had met
them both last year at Peniel. Now I looked up to se Luis
intent on the road and Katie sleeping against the window.
Looking at Katie and Luis my thoughts turn once again to
Christ. What does being a Christian mean anyway? The words
to the Stavesacre song playing on the radio seem to answer
my question. "Sometimes love escapes misery". Being a
Christian means simply that we love. We love Christ,
eachother and the life around us. We are filled with love
because of the great gift that he gave us on the cross. He
died for us, to show his immmense Love for us. We as
Christians are just as sinful and human as anyone else we
simply have a great teacher who showed us how to live
lives full of love.
I smile now at this as I feel once again the hand of God
with me. The rain beats down on the windsheild and I think
to myself that Christ is happy with those who try to live
their lives with love.




Ad: