The Essence of Camp
We were sitting around the embers of our campfire, looking up at the stars, and one of my campers put into words what I had been thinking all week;
“I wish I could live like this all the time.”
I wish I could bottle up the essence of camp and bring it back with me to all the chaos and monotony of regular civilian life. Then I would always feel comfortable in my own skin, always forget my phone in my car, always go through the day without knowing what the weather is or how many people liked what I just posted on facebook. I wish I ended every night talking to girls about their hearts and spiritual longings and the questions we can never quite ask anywhere other than next to a campfire. I wish I could always be my camp self.
And maybe I can’t bottle it up. Maybe camp is camp and the rest of the world is just missing out. But I don’t think it has to be that way. I think we can all bring a little more camp into our lives. We can get up a little earlier and watch the sun rise some days. We can put our dumb phones away for an hour or two. We can make time for face to face conversations. In real life. We can slow down.
When I was looking up at the stars that night, I was thinking about how beautiful they are and I felt a twinge of sadness for all the nights of my life when I never went outside and looked up. Practically a whole summer has gone by without stopping to really see the stars. And that’s not right.
And yet, the stars do not burn any less brightly because I fail to notice them. And God is not any less God when I fail to worship Him.
It’s me that suffers. I am less me when I ignore God or breeze past His creation because I’m too absorbed in myself. We were never meant to live inside ourselves. We aren't made to interact only through screens and pixels.
So let’s all agree to seek out more camp moments. Right here, in the real world. Let’s love more and look more and pray more. And above all, let's invite God into the little moments that make up our world. Because that's really the essence of camp.
