Jesus is in the House
First peace, then joy, then love
fill my spirit whenever I drive to Shrine Mont.
I feel sheltered by mountains; I feel particularly sheltered by this one
where I know there will be good friends, good times and good food. Best of all, Jesus will be there in ways I
can count on. The ways that I can’t
predict are the most powerful, reminding me to stay alert.
My most recent trip was a 24-hour
drop-in on Family Camp, led this year by my friend Chris Cameron. This year’s Senior Warden at St. Anne’s,
Reston, Chris has consistently brought wise and faithful leadership to her
church. She brings a Ph.D. in clinical
health psychology, and particular expertise and experience in emotional
well-being to everything she does. At
Family Camp Chris focused on the importance of how our emotions, especially
joy, enliven and connect us as children of our loving God. The joy she had set free in the group was
obvious when I entered the dining hall on Friday and five happy people told me
how wonderful their week had been before I even sat down.
Each day at Family Camp day begins
with worship. Friday morning’s service
was a special treat – led by the youth, with beautiful music sung and led by
Mary Reins, accompanied by Jenni Logan on guitar. Terrence Preston delivered a powerful message
about connecting with one another in ways that can only lead us to one
conclusion: Jesus is in the house. That’s just what happens at Family Camp, and
it repeats throughout the year when Family Camp participants connect with each
other in places other than Shrine Mont.
On Friday morning Chris led us in choosing
a psalm in small groups to read or enact in a way that communicated the
emotions expressed in the psalm. The
creativity in our presentations was inspired and inspiring, imprinting fresh joys
from those psalms in our memories.
We closed the morning by choosing
photographs that pictured what we hoped to take home, and explaining the
reasons for our choices. Many of the
photos mirrored the gifts of the Holy Spirit that the youngest members of the
group had drawn and spoken about during our closing worship: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude,
knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord.
The gift I expected was that all would
experience the love of Christ during the week. What I didn’t expect was how
clearly and consistently we knew his presence in our hearts through connecting
with our human companions, younger, older, or in-between; and sometimes with
all of them at once.
What would our lives be like if we
remembered, every day, to bring that home?
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