Planet Earth meets Camp Sunrise

I had lots of good vivid memories from childhood, especially from the two weeks each summer when I would get to go to Camp Sunrise (!) and AWANA camp (I’m surprised no one from AWANA camp has found me on here yet….lol).

One of the funniest memories I had was this game we called “prison break”, where everyone of one gender would be inside of a circle and the members of the other team would try to go whatever they could to get people out of the circle. To this day, I have this picture of Lisa Henderson almost squeezing the living daylights out of Jamie Peavy (and Amanda Darley I think) trying to keep all three of them from getting pulled outside the circle. The team that was able to keep at least 1 person inside the circle for the longest period of time was the winner.

Well, we played a variation of this game at AWANA camp 1-2 years later, and I remember very vividly how it all played out. They called it something like “cows and cowgirls” with all the boys from one team inside the circle and all the girls (about 20 of them) trying to get the boys out of it. The rule was that the boys had to be on their hands and knees or lying on the ground (struggling and thrashing around was ok).

The first team of boys simply each did their own thing and were quickly removed from the circle. With each guy as an island, the team of girls, working in wolven-like packs of 5-7, made quick work of them. The 2nd team of four wasn’t much better. The third team had a little bit better strategy and at least some of the large boys kind of linked together and the chain was somewhat more impervious to the pride of lionesses.

My team realized that the only way we were gonna win was to literally make a dog pile in the middle (we were all kind of small) with everyone grabbing as many arms legs and necks as they could. As a matter of fact, we probably looked like a pile of extension cords that had been sitting by themselves for a while (in case you didn’t know, the longer extension cords sit together, the more congealed and intertwined they become =)). It was one big mass of 5th and 6th graders. And boy did we hold on for dear life!! Our mass of manhood was pretty impregnable to the roving band of lionesses and we lasted more than double the other three teams.

I was recently reminded of this story while watching Our Planet Earth, the extraordinary British Television series. In one of the episodes, a polar bear is trying to eat and comes upon a herd of walruses “chilling” on a huge piece of ice. You’d think it’d be easy pickings, right? Oh no! You see, the walruses all formed a tight circle with their huge butts forming an impervious wall. The polar bear’s claws and teeth were no match for the thick skin of the walrus. (Plus, one of the big walruses then turned around and started impaling the polar bear with his huge tusks….talk about a bad day in polar bear land.) After several minutes, the polar bear leaves the herd both hurt and hungry.

What made any of this strike a cord with me? I guess it’s just that we’re all confronted by evil every single day. At small group last week, we each drew one other person’s name from the bin and promised to pray for that person at least 1x a day. That one person prayed for me every single day! And I could tell! He was being the walrus next to me helping to form the impregnable shield against the vicious polar bears that circled when we least expected it. He was part of my dogpile keeping me in the circle while the lionesses tried to pick me off. And to continue the dog pile metaphor, someone else in the group was praying for him and “grabbing his leg” and not letting go either. Our small group became an intertwined sea of humanity that rebuffed evil as a team. It was wonderful.

May God give you "walruses with thick skin" to stand on either side of you too.

Prayer contemplations

Last night, I was really comforted by something that God brought to mind, and I wanted to share it. It's this idea that He knows everything about me. The number of hairs on my head, the exact nature of my fears and struggles, my thoughts from afar (Ps 139), my desire to honor Him, the desire to have a life of significance, my past failures, my dreams, my hopes, my doubts - everything. He knows it all!! Every single piece of it.

I just kind of went off of that and validated some of these things while praying: "Jesus, you know exactly what's going on. There's nothing about my life that's surprised you - not one bit." Jesus knew that I would be rejected by this former girlfriend; I at least find this a tad bit comforting that He knew about this and has known about this since the beginning of time.

My prayer continued: "Christ, you know exactly the attacks that are going to come tonight and tomorrow. As a matter of fact, you know everything. With that in mind, you also know the exact way for me to escape these temptations (I Cor 10:13) such that I will not sin in my heart. Holy Spirit, I don't know the exact nature of the attacks, and I certainly don't know how to fight them. But you do!!! You know exactly what's going on!!" Y'all, we can lean on the everlasting wisdom Who is intimately aware of everything.

The last part of the prayer: "So that's it, Jesus. I'm thankful that you know the past, present, future - EVERYTHING. You say your load is easy and burden is light. Mine burden feels heavy and awful right now. You think you could help me and ease my struggles some? Can we switch backpacks today, Jesus? I pray that you'll do this for me.
In Jesus's name, amen."

Reflections on Holy Week: Rocky Balboa, Bells, and Trumpets

I find it fascinating that Holy Week, or the week leading up to Easter, can hit me in brand new ways year after year. This has been especially heightened by the fact that our church observes Lent which only lends to a greater level of expectation and hope.

I've been going through some tough times recently and was dwelling on some of the deep themes from the most recent Rocky film, Rocky Balboa. In the most recent installment, Rocky, at the age of approximately 60, is not yet ready to throw in the towel. He wants to prove to himself that he is still capable of doing something with his life. But more importantly, he wants to find an inner peace with himself. He feels he will only obtain if he once more gets in the ring, a fight which he says "is not about getting hit" but about "how many times one can get hit and still get up."

The movie builds up to such a wonderful ending, with Rocky standing toe to toe with the defending champ, Mason Dixon. And the beautiful thing about this movie is that it's not about whether Rocky wins or loses the last fight - it's about the fact that he makes it until the last bell sounds. Rocky has finally made peace with himself and leaves the ring not even caring who actually is declared the winner. He knows in his heart that he's at peace with his wife's death, with his relationship with his son - I would even say with God at that point. It's truly a life-death-resurrection type movie in every sense of the word. Rocky experiences a rebirth at the end of the movie which reminds me a lot about Holy Week in a very transcendental way. I wish I could do a better job of connecting the dots in this blog.

Like Rocky, my hope is to keep battling evil until the final bell sounds. And you know what's great about this? Only it's not going to be a bell this time...but rather a trumpet! That's right, the Lord is going to return from the heavens with a SHOUT, with the voice of the archangels and with trumpets blasting. Just like royal trumpeters would herald the return of the king, Jesus will receive the same royal welcome when he returns to Earth to rule it.

"We have not been left on Friday" (the day of the crucifixion, metaphorically a place of defeat and despair) like my cousin Helen told me recently. We don't have to wallow in despondency like Rocky did in the 1st half of the movie. We've been given good and perfect gifts from our Heavenly Father and are fully capable of going the distance. We just have to learn how let Him do it through us.

We can't live the Christian life. No Christian on earth can live the Christian life....and no this isn't a misprint. If we're doing it in our own power, we are going to fail. We're going to fall down before the last bell sounds.

Let's be Romans chapter 8 overcomers through the power of the Spirit of God. Let's all be spiritual Russell Crowe Gladiator figures =). After all, the trumpet could sound at any moment.

=D

P.S. Sly Stallone, I'm glad you're gonna be in heaven.