2018 marks the twentieth consecutive year of our family attendance at Central Bible and Leadership Institute, our annual Bible camp with The Salvation Army. I'm really kicking myself for not insisting that Sean attend (camp is more challenging for him, given his shyness). Trevor and I both had a wonderful time. We battled dueling feelings of joy and sorrow because we approached the week feeling it would be our last CBLI encampment (next year, when Trevor will finally be old enough to attend the teen track alone, he will probably be on the football team and the high school coaches do not tolerate absence for the week of football camp - it always falls on the week of CBLI). It added a touch of gloom as we continually thought, "Will this be our last?"
I was thrilled to learn that two friends from my teen years would be attending for the first time in many years. Lori Dalberg Gjovig came to work in the jr. high track (had no photo of Lori) and Tina Carlson Fewell came to spend the week with her son, Blake. Here's a photo of Tina (on the left) with another friend, Susan (who has attended CBLI for several years):
This provided two more individuals for me to eat meals with (especially important now that Trevor eats most of his meals with his friends instead of with me).
We were housed this year in Robin (a cabin I haven't been in since the first two or three years of attendance when Bryce was 3-5 years old). Although they were working on re-siding the cabin (lots of afternoon sawing and pounding), I still managed to nap through it due to my early rising. My 5 a.m. Eastern time waking hour translated to 4 a.m. Central time, but my body refused to give up its circadian rhythm. I happily rose early, showered, and headed over to the lodge lounge to carry out my typical morning Bible and writing routines.
A curious new space at camp provided a perfect setting for my annual photo with my friend, Laura. The tiny room was located outside the chapel, but I'm still unclear what purpose it was meant to serve (apart from photo ops):
The adult track enjoyed the Christian comedy team, Bean and Bailey, on the first Sunday night:
Other activities included a concert by Joseph Solomon, a dog presentation by Extreme Obedience, and a celebration of 50 years of teen track leadership by the inimitable Barb Higgins. But, I think my favorite part of the adult track, was the Bible study led by Capt. Marion Platt. He taught about the character of God, focusing on such attributes as immutability, omnipresence, holiness, sovereignty, faithfulness, justice, mercy, and love. I was deeply moved by his words about God's unchanging character when he introduced the concept of "would-be Jesus," a Jesus we're more comfortable with because he is made, by us, in our own image. His words hit home so much that I feel I must share them (available to listen to in the link above on the You Tube video for the second day of the study, at the 37:30 minute mark):
"We'd rather have, sometimes, 'Would-Be-Jesus.' Do you know who W-B Jesus is? It's a kinda, but not-quite Jesus. It's based-on-a-true-story Jesus. It's the kind of Jesus you create, not of wood or gold, but in your own image. W-B Jesus takes cues and gets counsel from you. W-B Jesus hates the stuff you hate, permits the stuff you permit, omits what you omit, condones what you condone and pets the doctrines you pet. W-B Jesus only ever votes the way you would vote and can't believe that other people vote any different. W-B Jesus ... prefers your preferences, is outraged by what you are outraged by, and when your ideas, opinions, views, and values change, as they often do, so do the ideas, opinions, views, and values of W-B Jesus change. W-B Jesus is made in your image. If you are a disgruntled, disillusioned person, so is W-B Jesus. If you're an angry person who screams at the TV at every shift in culture, then your W-B Jesus screams at the TV beside you. If you're a hard-core permissive, hemp-wearing flower child, your W-B Jesus strums a harp on the lowest branch of the oldest oak tree. W-B Jesus tolerates other churches, but likes your church the best....
"It would shock you how similar W-B Jesus is to you. He walks with you, He talks with you, and you tell Him 'You are my own.' And if you look closely, if you conduct a comparative analysis of W-B Jesus to the middle-Eastern, middle-aged Jesus of history and Scripture, you will find that you have hung a carefully cultivated scarecrow in the garden of your heart. W-B Jesus might keep the crows of culture away, but W-B Jesus can never save you or make you holy. Why? Because W-B Jesus is too busy changing. And you know what? The fact that W-B Jesus changes is proof that W-B Jesus is not Jesus at all.
"We find a complete character profile of God between the gospels... My main point for this entire week is that God will be who He will be, unchanging, omnipresent, holy, faithful, just, merciful, and loving independent of the culture or our political preferences. And we learn that from turning our eyes upon the actual, real-life Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
From my own notes, I gleaned some powerful observations: 1) Despite the sensation of loneliness, we are never alone because God stands outside of time and is geographically and chronologically ever-present; 2) We can talk about holiness but still be empty until we interact with the source; 3) God wants us to be the "spittin' image" of Him; 4) Our biggest problem in imitating His level of faithfulness comes from our contract-thinking instead of covenant-thinking; and 5) Righteousness includes not just loving God in a proper way but others in a provisional way.
But my notes were haphazard at best, compared to the beautifully illustrated notes Valerie Carr took and shared:
While I was soaking up the spiritual nourishment of the Bible study (and insight from my elective class on spiritual gifts), Trevor was studying wisdom in the jr. high track (especially fun for him because he was able to play drums for the praise band in his track:
He spent a bit of time down at the lakefront fishing, but gave up on his usual goal of winning the largest fish competition.
Instead, he spent most of his free time hanging with his buddies, Ethan and Emmet (sometimes literally hanging):
(Another crazy glasses purchase at our favorite Antioch, IL joke, magic, and costume shop, J.J. Blinkers - a fun annual tradition.)
By the end of the week, despite our eagerness to get home to our own beds and showers, we were both fairly sad that our possible final encampment was over. I keep trying to come up with some way to salvage plans to make it work again. Perhaps I can insist Sean go with me next year. Perhaps Trevor will decide against playing high school football. Or perhaps I will simply go on my own. A year without CBLI would be, well, a year with a gaping hole during the month of July. Only time will tell, but my heart hopes CBLI will be in our future again, somehow, some way.
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I only took the photos of our private room in Robin. All other photos came from those who attended the camp with me, so special thanks to Jennifer Minter, Laura Allen, Emily Southfield, Tina Fewell, Kim Suydam, Brenna Lee, and Valerie Carr for use of their photos.
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