“Never tell a lie, never say die, and never stick your finger in another man’s pie!”-From the St. Dorothy’s Rest Ritual (Sung at St. Dot’s for over 109 years!).
Every year I serve as chaplain at St. Dorothy’s Rest I await God moments. A God moment for me is a moment in time in which I am surprised by God in a way I never expect. God moments always happen and this year was no exception.
This year, the God moment came at Goat Head’s beach. One day of camp is set aside for a twelve mile hike to the beach (I’ve never participate in the past, however, this year I not only hiked but led the way!). Once the campers arrive they are allowed to play, then have dinner, and then wrap up with the evening chapel program (provided by yours truly).
Now, the camp is divided up by four groups: older boys, older girls, younger boys and younger girls. In the chapel program I asked each group to build a “monument” to the four leaves that make up the four leaf clover of St. Dorothy’s: Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck. The idea was connected to the biblical story of Jacob who slept in a holy place while dreaming of angles ascending and descending into heaven. Jacob marked the place so that all who passed by would know that it was holy. Our campers did the same. The older girls had love (and made a monument using themselves), the older boys had luck (and made a horseshoe in the sand and a sign that read “Good luck, Dude!”), the younger girls had faith (they wrote faith in the sand and used their bodies to for the word faith) and the younger boys had hope (they took driftwood and wrote the words hope in big letters). While all of the monuments were very good, it was the younger boys who blew me away. In particular, it was a camper by the name of Steven, all of seven years old who engendered the God moment for me.
After the younger boys presented their monument, Steven was invited to say a few words about hope. Here’s what I remember him saying:
“Hope is really hard sometimes. There are times you feel you have it and there are times you don’t. My baby sister needed surgery and it looked like she was going to die. We lit a candle every night and prayed before the Virgin Mary that she would live. My sister had three surgeries and you know what, she lived! You have to have hope because it is what we need in order to live.”
That’s the best sermon I’ve heard on hope in a long time.
In conclusion, God moments are about hope. God moments are not necessarily angelic voices or earth-shattering events: rather, they can be as simple as the faith and hope of a seven year old child. But I know this; those God moments buoy and sustain us in those difficult times when hope seems very hard to find. Steven said it best: “You have to have hope because it is what we need in order to live.” May we all keep that in mind.
Yours for the reign of God,
Ron
[this is good]
Dear Ron -
Awesome update and blog!
Posted by: Laura Peterson | 08/13/2010 at 08:48 PM