Another busy month is coming to a close! I was blessed enough to have participated in the Surfside Camp at Twin Rocks early in the month. It was a wonderful experience being there and serving as an Elder for the camp. I had some really great conversations with counselors and students alike. I got to play games and generally be ridiculous for Jesus (which suits me more than I should be comfortable with) and was overwhelmed by the welcoming love of everyone involved! Camps are always a highlight for me. I love them. I want to keep going and serving in whatever way I can as long as I can. I know how much camp experiences have meant in my development as a Christian (and still do). Why would I not want the chance to be renewed and refreshed with brothers and sisters in the Lord over the course of a few days focused on what God wants to do in and through us?

I was also blessed with the chance to attend the Dove Fest concert this month! I volunteered with Drew Krupp to serve as an usher. Most of my evening was spent on my feet asking if people had their tickets. While many people were frustrated by my repeated insistence to follow the rules many more were glad that I let them know to get their ticket so they could make it back to their seat. I am a rule follower. It is a part of who I am and I like following the rules I agree with. There are times, however, that my rebel side comes out and a rule I disagree with shows up. In those times I have to make a choice between following the rules and doing what is right or disobeying the rules and acting as I please.

It can be a struggle to follow the rules when we disagree with them. Our will gets in the way of our obedience to the rules. Often in our Christian walk we fall into the same trap. Our will gets in the way of our obedience to God’s will. Our natural (fallen/sinful) state is one of rebellion and pride, we do our things our way and feel like that is how things should be. In Christ we have a new will to follow and new ways of doing things, essentially we have a new set of rules which we can follow or break. At Camp we had to deal with some people who wanted to exercise their will in ways that were contrary to the rules established for our time together. This brought some conflict and tension into the camp environment and could have been a negative experience if it weren’t for the camp directors guiding the situation to a positive outcome.

Following the rules for Kingdom living is going to be difficult and cause conflict and tension in our lives. If we let Christ guide us through these times of conflict and tension we will certainly see a positive outcome. Maybe not today or tomorrow but in the end through Christ’s leadership and love we will see the purpose for these messy lives and know that it was all for something greater than we could have known at the time.

I was terribly shy as a child (hard to believe I know!) so going to school and being around a whole bunch of new people for the first time was a daunting prospect. My mother’s encouragement to me was to “make friends” (which to my ears sounded like a good idea, I could design them how I wanted and they would like me because I would “make” them to do so) and sent me off into each new school experience with the same advice, “make friends.” I realized that what she meant in her statements was not to create your own friends just the way you want them to be but to build relationships with other people who are uniquely created by God. People with their own quirks, eccentricities, and desires for what the relationship would look like.

As I reflect on this month I am thinking about Making Friends. What does that look like? How do we do that well? Can’t I just build my own, you know, without the flaws and brokenness that people so often carry? Is there an easier way to do this than through opening ourselves to relationship and sharing our life with another? Unfortunately, I know that we can’t just create our own and if there is an easier way to build relationship with other people than through sharing life with them I haven’t discovered it!

I went to Yearly Meeting this month and had a good time. I got the chance to reconnect with pastors whom I had connected with at Pastor’s Conference/Retreat a few months ago. I also had the chance to “make friends” with a lot of new people! I always get a little nervous going to a group or place for the first time. I want to be accepted and to be a good fit for the group and have easy relationships there. Thankfully this was one of those times and I got to meet a lot of wonderful people from around the Yearly Meeting and listen to their stories.

As we try to live out our Christian faith we find ourselves running into a lot of people. People who are hungry for relationship with other humans and with God, we have the chance to “Make Friends.” This is often a slow process and one that is painful, broken people have sharp edges after all. But even though it is slow, hard, and painful it results in something beautiful: new friends. The effort of relationship is worth it because of the shared love we have and how much it adds to our lives. So, this month I encourage you to go out and make friends; to find new spaces and new people to engage in relationship with. Try something new. Talk to someone you wouldn’t normally. Find yourself blessed by the opening of a new friendship.

Seriously though, this is too hot. If the temperature is hotter than my radio station it isn’t good. This month has been hot in a couple ways, first, our temperatures here in the valley and second, in other issues going on in our culture and nation. People are feeling the heat. People are sweating. They are expending more energy just to survive than they have in other seasons.

The best way to deal with the added strain on our body, church or physical, is to increase our intake of water. As Christians we have access to an every flowing well. This is a source of good, pure, life-giving water that makes us able to persevere when temperatures get hot and tempers flare. We are able to make it through the desert because God is providing water for us along the way. We are able to make it through the cultural change going on around us because God’s consistent, life-giving water doesn’t change or evaporate no matter how hot it gets. Let’s take some time this month to drink deep from the ever flowing well, time to rest in the shadow of His wings, and time to work up a good sweat for His Kingdom purpose here in Medford. It might be too hot, but God is too good to give us more than we can handle with Him.

Another month has come and gone! How are these days so long and these months so short? Time just doesn’t make sense to me… Anyway, this month I had a visit from my brother Jared and his family! I have been looking forward to hanging out with them and doing some exploring. We were going to try and make it over to Crater Lake and then go around and see the different towns and stuff around Medford. Unfortunately when Jared and his crew arrived they were tired, sick, and ready to rest. My expectations for our time together were not fully met. We spent some great time together at my home and they got a chance to recuperate from their journey. We just spent time together in the living room, relaxing on the couches and watching movies for the first day they were here. It was so nice.

We had planned to do a lot of things and go see some different places but what we ended up doing was just resting together. That was better than anything I could have planned. Sometimes that is the best thing we can do together. Be a place of rest for each other during our long journey. It wasn’t really easy having a bunch of sick people in my house or having little packing peanuts end up scattered around my house! But to have a full home with a full heart is worth the mess of being with other people. Sometimes it is frustrating to have to deal with their junk in addition to our own but it is absolutely worth it. To have their smiles, to have their laughter, to be able to joke and catch up with them; the chance to just take a break, together, from all the wild adventures that we go on is something that shouldn’t be passed over.

This same kind of resting together is what I love about the church. We come together to rest and relax after a long week and find space to laugh and learn about how each one has been over the course of the intervening time. We have this space that is safe and is home for us. In coming together to rest (even with the mess each one brings) we find ourselves more connected as a family, as the Body of Christ here in Medford. Our journey together needs little breaks and time, to simply be with one another and remember each other before the Lord. What a blessing to be part of this family of God!