Living it

This morning the lectionary pointed me to this passage from Colossians 2 (The Message version):

You received Christ, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well-constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

It occurs to me that Creation Vacation, the family camp I deaned a few weeks back at Camp Magruder, was an opportunity to try to do this--to live the life we are called to live, together. We did not focus on growing spiritually by sitting quietly to study the Bible or talk about "spiritual things," but we showed up to do what is sometimes difficult to do: live together. God has already broken down the walls (created by us and people before us) that keep us from God and from each other and we have been created to be together--so why not be together? It can be hard as heck but, as it turns out, is way more fun!

CV was transformational because we jumped in and opened ourselves to listening to and sharing ourselves with many we hadn't known before, who spoke in a different languages and had had completely different life experiences. Even more challenging (and life-giving) for some was doing these things with people we do know well--our families! We ate together, played together, made choices together, created together, shared difficult and lovely parts of our lives, enjoyed creation together, prayed together, sang together, just hung out together. And we came away filled with love and friendship and longing to continue to deepen the connections we made. The living we did together has definitely spilled over into thanksgiving. What a gift. Now, after this rejuvenating time, the opportunity we have is to learn to live well together as friends and neighbors and families in daily life in our own communities!

A few (yeah, right) of my favorite pictures...

I had such a fun time teaching these two sweet girls to row:

Salsa-making contest--sooo good...and soooo spicy!

Campfire fun. So great seeing parents getting silly with their kiddos.

The best big brother.

Collective crafting. This space was always full!

2 out of 3 of the camp donkeys are arthritic and retired now (the oldest is 30!) but they still like to walk a bit.

A gorgeous day emerging...

Craft cabin view.

New friends--love this.

Swinging!

Paper airplane making. I loved being around this kid because he was always smiling.

Sand castles! Where many boys (young and old) spent hours.

Just hanging out.

Bertha and one of her sweeties.

New friends.

:)

Practicing pulling back on the rope before wave-jumping.

The beach [happy sigh].

Good friends.

Who doesn't love staring at the ocean? Too bad we can not all manage to be so cute while we do it.

Skipping stones. Loved seeing this Family Friend making connections.

Silly songs around the campfire were awesome, but love songs in Spanish belted out happily around the campfire--the best.

Hanging out.

All the Family Friends. What an awesome group!

I was excited to see some CV families and several Family Friends at the Hillsboro UMC Summer JAM (a VBS-ish family program) and can't wait to see everyone again in a month for our Creation Vacation reunion picnic in the park!! It's so great to be looking for ways to keep living it out together with all these folks in my community who are now my friends!