This weekend was spent at a church camp, on retreat, with about 25 people from the church I pastor. We worked, we played, we worshiped, we goofed off. Some people got extra hikes and extra time to sleep...some came home needing to rest up. All of us had to leave home to spend time together. It was a choice we made. Our ages ranged from six to seventy-something, with some representation of all decades in between. Our interests and backgrounds varied as widely as our ages. And still, we all chose to leave home, to spend time with one another.
Granted, this wasn't your usual retreat. The understanding from the outset was that it was "all activities optional". In other words, we came to do some work, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to. Feel free to do something else. So the youngest played games, spent time in the craft cabin, and went fishing. The eldest got those extra naps. (Well, some of them, anyway.) The twenty-somethings went on a hike with the fifty-somethings. And we all worshiped together, in really different ways. We read Psalm 19, then went outside with bags to collect things to make a collage with. We read John 21, then played with the right side of our brains by using crayons, colored pencils, clay, and paper. We read Genesis 1, then rejoiced in the creativity we've been given by God. We didn't have to leave home to do all this - but it was easier to do in a new setting.
Some of the biggest changes in my life have been initiated by leaving home. Going to college, of course. But even more so, leaving my home state and travelling across the country with my new husband. Leaving homes in Maryland, then Kansas, then Kentucky as we followed my military career around the U.S. Finally, leaving my Army home and returning to my home town to farm and to work as a nurse, and raise a family. Most recently, leaving even that home, the one we'd built from the ground up, the one with views of Mt.Rainier and Mt. Adams, and going to Pasco to serve a church.
My biggest transitions have all happened when I left home. And in each of them, God has found space to work in me in new ways. Perhaps that's why the small leavings - the retreats, the vacations, the short-term work away from home - also seem to have such potential for awakening me to God's presence in my life. Is this the same for you? When you leave home, do you also encounter God in new ways? Let me know your thoughts on this...let's share about the gifts of both newness and stability.
