Holy Ground

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). Have you ever been overcome with such reverence that you felt the need to take off your shoes? I had a holy ground experience the other day. I am still processing the experience, and I am still working on how to articulate it, so I am inviting you to take this journey with me. It is a holy ground experience that has to do with breath, the Spirit, the holy ruach of God. This is the ruach (usually translated as spirit, wind, or breath) that moved over the waters at the beginning of all things (Genesis 1:2). Before there was light, there was ruach. This is the ruach that gave breath to the first humans (Genesis 2:7), brought life to the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:7-10), and descended upon the believers at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). This same breath gives life to all living things, this same Spirit enlivens the church for ministry in the world.

Grandma had a strong spirit, and she lived her life as a testament to the unfailing love of God through every season of life. I call her grandma even though technically she is my wife’s grandma. My own grandparents died when I was about 12, and I have known grandma for more than 12 years. In fact, she was the first of my wife’s relatives that I met, even before I met her parents or siblings. I call her grandma.

She has been in hospice care, so none of the family members were surprised when she took a turn for the worse last week. She was in pain as the caregivers were trying to adjust her medication to keep her as comfortable as possible. I sat with her alone for hours during this time, holding her hand and talking with her. As I asked her which Bible passages she would like me to read, she mentioned the psalms. So I read. There were moments of lucidity amidst the struggles her body was having, and in those times were grace-filled moments. She became fully alert at the sound of her granddaughter’s voice over the phone and at the sound of her son’s voice (my father-in-law) when he arrived. I was especially moved when she smiled broadly at the sight of my two boys and even identified my youngest by name. In her last conscious moments, she was surrounded by her family (children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren) and her last words expressed the overwhelming experience as she smiled at my youngest son and said, “Oh, for heaven’s sake!”

In the days that followed, the act of breathing and circulating the oxygenated blood became the body’s sole tasks. Breathe in. Breathe out. The breath of life remained in her. After nearly a century on this earth, her body clung to that ruach, even as she was long prepared for the next life. Ruach: breath, spirit, wind. I was privileged to be there for the last breath. Whether by chance or design, I cannot say. But I can say that it was holy ground. Many of us were gathered around her bedside that night. We were talking to each other and reflecting fondly on the life grandma lived. My father-in-law left to settle the others in for the night and was going to return and spend the night with grandma, who had expressed days earlier that she did not want to be alone. I said I would stay until he returned, and then I also planned to leave for the night.

I brought a book to read, but it soon occurred to me that I was not alone, and it was rude to bury my nose in a book when grandma was just laying there with nothing to do. I recalled that whenever we went over to her house, she attended to our needs. There was always great food and hot tea (served properly). She was a gracious host, and a person really got the sense in her presence that she was not really concerned with all the other things she needed to attend to; rather, you - the one in front of her - were the only one that mattered to her at that moment. I put down my school book and grabbed the Gideon Bible from the drawer. It was clear where to turn: Psalms, her last conscious request to me. I read Psalm 22 and 23. I read Psalm 8. Her breathing changed. Her upper body moved a little, as if she was trying to adjust herself to hear properly. I half expected her to wake up, and I got the sense that she was listening, soaking in the words of promise and expectation. I continued reading. As I noticed her breaths coming farther apart, I turned to Psalm 103, one of my favorites. I continued on to another favorite: Psalm 104, a song of praise to God’s power in all of creation. The Lord gives the breath of life to all living things. “When you take away their breath,” verse 29 says, “they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth.” Her breaths were more labored now, and getting farther apart. This is when I had the urge to remove my shoes. I began singing “Amazing Grace.” As I transitioned from verse 4 (“He will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures”) to verse 5 (“When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun”), she took her last breath. I just sat there for a while, waiting for the next breath to fill her lungs, but it never came. Her breath, the ruach, had returned to God. She lived her life as a testament to God’s goodness and constant presence in all circumstances, and to her last breath she blessed me with the knowledge that I am in the presence of God.

As I live my life, I hope I can take every breath with the grace that she did, and when it comes time for my breath to return to God, I hope it bears witness to the presence of God in all seasons and circumstances of life. Her last message to me, and my encouragement to you: take every breath as a gift from God and be ever mindful of those grace-filled moments in your life when you are standing on holy ground.

Living in God's Time: Lent at Camp

The Lutheran Outdoor Ministry curriculum for this summer is walking campers through the church year, showing how the liturgical seasons give rhythm to our life together as Christians. Youth culture, mirroring the adult world, has become so fast-paced that young people seldom take the time to slow down and consider what it means to live a life structured according to God’s time. Camp is one of the few places left where young people unplug, slow down, and reflect on who they are in relation to one another and to God. Day 3 of their Bible study this summer will focus on the season of Lent. More than any other season of the church year, Lent is a time to slow down, reflect, and redirect our lives to God. It is probably the most observed season of the church year, with many people giving something up for Lent as a spiritual discipline. I think Lenten themes have an especially important significance in the camp environment.

Lent begins with the powerful and tactile experience of Ash Wednesday, probably the only time that Christians intentionally get dirty in church. We are reminded of our fragility and mortality: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” At camp, we have no problem with getting dirty, of course, and it is also one of the best places for young people to consider who they are as fragile, mortal creatures. Think of the homesick camper who realizes his incredible vulnerability when outside the safety of the home. Think of the camper who looks out from the mountainside and realizes for the first time how fragile she is in the midst of this creation. Think of the campers sleeping under the clear night sky who open their eyes in wonder and realize how small and insignificant they seem in this vast universe. Camp is a place of vulnerability, a place to reflect on who we are in relation to God, one another, and creation. We do not have it all figured out, and we are not the center of the universe. We are broken, fragile people in need of a savior.

More than the other seasons of the church year, Lent is a time of personal spiritual reflection, when the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are emphasized. Camp is known first and foremost as a place of community. In the context of this caring (and often overly exuberant) community living, we also offer our campers tremendous opportunities for silence and personal prayer. By a babbling brook or windblown meadow, the camper sits and his the chance to simply BE. Where else do young people receive the encouragement, community support, and simply the time for silent prayer, meditation, Bible reading, or contemplation on God’s creation? The best camps offer multiple opportunities each day for these traditionally Lenten spiritual practices so that they are incorporated into the rhythm of daily living.

Lent serves as the center of the liturgical year around which all the other seasons are structured and gain their significance. We proclaim during Christmas that the crucified one is God incarnate and during Easter the victory of the crucified one over death. The passion of Jesus Christ is the central story of Christianity, and Lent serves as a time of preparation for hearing about Jesus’ final hours on earth. The cross is our central symbol for a reason. Too often, church goers skip the Good Friday service and come only for Easter Sunday. We love to celebrate the resurrection and Christ’s victory over death. However, there is no resurrection and no salvation without the cross.

A theology of the cross proclaims that we find life in the crucified one. We are saved because God in Jesus Christ entered into the lowest possible human state of existence. On the cross, Jesus is forsaken by friends, the religious community, and God himself (Mark 15:34). Therefore, God is present and at work in our times of suffering, sin, and Godforsakenness. Whitewashing human suffering or skipping right to the resurrection is to deny the crucified one. Some people might say, “That’s too sad” or “I don’t want to dwell on that!” Others are mired in a state of Godforsakenness. Think of the camper with the addiction. Think of the camper contemplating suicide. Think of the camper who is emotionally, physically, or sexually abused. Think of those struggling to carry on after the death of a loved one. God is there with them in those lowest of circumstances. 

Camp is a place to be real. It is a place where suffering is laid bare. Camp is often the place where young people voice their suffering for the first time in their lives. Lent is a time of contemplation of Christ’s passion and eternal solidarity with the Godforsaken, and camps are Lenten communities when they hold people in their suffering and remain with them there. Don’t tell a camper that everything will be okay. Don’t say that God is bringing good out of the situation. Remain with them there and know that as they bare their soul and share with you the depths of their terrible suffering, you are on holy ground. You are in the presence of God, the crucified one.

In the context of Living in God’s Time, camps are Lenten communities. In the fulness of time (kairos), we see ourselves simultaneously living in Lent, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost. For more on the conversation, check out the webinar on Lent at camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDlb3odoFE and the post on Theology of the Cross and Camp.

Rethinking Camp Loyalty

One of the most powerful forces in Christian camping is loyalty. Successful camp programs are built around loyalty. Campers who have a great time at camp come to associate the positive experience with a specific place, and they are therefore likely to return in the future. Loyalty is a part of marketing, and the “brand recognition” of a specific camp becomes very important to its financial success. Camps need young people going home to tell their parents, siblings, and friends that their particular camp is the greatest place in the world. This creates loyalty, which increases donations and camper numbers, thus making the camp experience available to more people. For these reasons, camp loyalty can be an incredibly positive force in Christian camping. However, this breaks down when we think of it in terms of competing with other camps for camper numbers. We need to be clear on this: there is not a scarcity of campers. There is a great abundance of young people who have never been to camp, and camps must work together to give them a camp experience. We do not need them to go to YOUR camp. We need them to go to camp.

Loyalty is perhaps most evident in summer staff members, who often turn loyalty into competition with other camps. Camps rely on returning staffers to carry on the particular traditions of the camp and help incorporate new staff into the community. It is not uncommon to find summer staff members who have served for three or more summers at the same camp they attended for five or more years as a camper. Many of these “lifers” will carry their camp loyalty to whatever congregation they join or (in many cases) lead as a pastor or youth minister. This results in the strange phenomenon of youth groups traveling hundreds of miles, usually past several quality Christian camps, in order to reach their youth minister’s nostalgic “greatest place in the world.” If you ask these youth ministers about it, they will invariably say that they tried the local camp, but it simply was not as good as the camp they attended. So they drive their congregation’s young people hundreds of miles farther in order to give their youth the best possible experience. They are blissfully unaware that en route, their youth group van passes a caravan going the opposite direction because that congregation’s youth leader grew up attending and loving the camp that the other youth minister thinks is inferior.

In the mean time, camps continue hiring their own proteges to their year-round staff positions. This is especially prevalent among program staff. Program directors oftentimes follow the trajectory of high school counselor in training program to summer staff counselor to summer leadership staff to year round staff. In one respect, this is a tremendously positive example of camps raising up young Christian leaders to full-time ministry. Unfortunately, this can also lead to an unhealthy perspective of a particular outdoor ministry site that perpetuates the loyalty cycle at the expense of a more expansive view of the church. Program directors raised in a particular camping paradigm with little or no exposure to alternate camp styles are likely to encourage their summer staff members and campers to continue returning to that particular camp. Why go anywhere else when this is the greatest place in the world?

While camp loyalty buoys individual camps, it hamstrings the mission of outdoor ministries. We do not exist to create a bunch of camp loyalists. We exist as communities of discipleship that build up the body of Christ. If our campers and staff members believe that their particular camp has some sort of exclusive claim on the movement of the Holy Spirit, we are doing a disservice to the church, which exists in a diversity of expressions. We need young disciples and mature Christians who are open to the Spirit at work in multiple expressions, and the greater diversity of experiences they have, the more open they will be. We certainly do not want to set camp up as an “authentic” Christian experience in contrast to the experience of the congregation or other Christian settings. If campers go home with an understanding that God is at work in your camp but not in their home congregation, we have failed in our mission.

Now comes the difficult task of applying these concepts. It is staff recruiting season, and many of our camps are hoping for a solid number of returning staff members, including those who have been on staff for three or more summers. What might it look like to encourage these camp loyalists to go work for another camp? What does it look like to promote outdoor ministries instead of the particularities of your camp? If we are serious about discipleship and building up the body of Christ, our task is much broader than filling the bunks. When that former summer staffer calls to tell you about bringing the church youth group across the country to your camp, will you encourage him/her to support the local camp? We somehow need to change the paradigm from a view of loyalty to one of discipleship, from following a camp to following Jesus, from scarcity and competition to opportunity and partnership. Outdoor ministries will be much stronger as a result. When outdoor ministry is stronger, the church benefits for the sake of the world. When outdoor ministry is stronger, more people attend camp, including your particular camp.