I was 20 years old when I signed up to be a camp counselor at a Lutheran Christian camp in northern Wisconsin. I had never been so tired and stretched beyond my limits. And I had never been so changed by a single summer. My kids are at Camp Wartburg in Waterloo, IL this week, so here's a shout out to those counselors and all who labor at a camp this summer. You gave up a college summer to serve kids. You sacrificed leisure, a job that pays more, or an all important internship for swim time with screaming kids and camp food. These are lessons I learned as a camp counselor:
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With the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, many Christians have responded in fearful panic. We are entering an era very different from the last century. Among American Christians, there is fear of changing societal norms and the continued marginalization of Christianity in what was once believed to be a “Christian nation.”
By contrast with the “Christian panic,” I am really excited about being a Christian in this new era. Why? We are returning to our pilgrim roots. A pilgrim is one who journeys a long distance; a traveler and wanderer in a foreign place. God’s people have a pilgrim history, living as strangers in a foreign land, exiles in a country not their own (Gen. 12:1). Augustine wrote, “The Heavenly City, while on its earthly pilgrimage, calls forth its citizens from every nation and assembles a multilingual band of pilgrims.” While pilgrims make a home in lands that God has given, they are never quite comfortable in any one place. If we put too much faith in an earthly dwelling, we find ourselves disappointed. So we tread on, our feet walking the earth below, our eyes set on a land beyond. Because we know of a heavenly City, we live lives on earth that are distinctly hopeful. The church in this modern era must reclaim the pilgrim way, discovering what it means to be a church “at the margins” and not at the center. What is the pilgrim way? Here are five pilgrim traits: |
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