The Power of Surrender

Good evening. Tonight I want to start by asking a question I hope you know the answer to by now. Why did you come to camp? Why are you here? Speaking for myself, my reason rests in some of our staff who were campers last summer and now have chosen to be counselors this year.

To watch the seeds of Christ be planted and take root in your hearts over the years and now to have the chance to see those seeds come to harvest this summer when you start to plant seeds of your own.

This why I come to camp. Because each of them are a living testament to the truth that unites us all: Not only can a week of camp change a life, a week of camp can save a life...for eternity.

How is this possible? What gives camp this power? I’ve come to believe that the power of camp depends greatly on its staff embracing an elementary yet challenging reality. This reality is critical for any 1st year staff to remember and vital for any seasoned staff to never forget.

It is a reality first introduced to a pretty selfish and immature 19yr old Chris Ewing starting his first summer at Camp Shiloh. It was one of our very first staff meetings. The camp director stood before the staff and uttered words that still ring in my ears 15 years later.

He looked at us, and said this, “Camp is not about you.” And for a kid whose life up to that point had been all about himself, the knowledge of this reality cracked the callous and shallow foundation upon which my life had been built.

So tonight I give those same words back to you, “Camp is not about you.” Now don’t misunderstand me. Camp includes you, camp depends on you, camp cares for you. But even still, camp is not about you.

Lets say it’s your cabin’s turn to scale the mountainous trek to and from your cabin. Will the walk be unpleasant and annoying? Yes, but it’s not about you. Let us pretend that the power goes out. Is there a chance you may have to take a cold shower in the dark? Yeah, but again it’s not about you. Or maybe your cabin is the only cabin that didn’t get the chance to get ice cream at the dairy bar. Camp is truly sorry, but it’s not about you.

But Chris, if camp is not about me, then what is camp about? Well if you could boil it down to a single word, I would say that camp is about surrender. By its definition, surrender is that action of yielding one’s person or giving up the possession of something into the power of another.

And when I reflect upon the Beattitudes, I can’t help but hear God inviting us to surrender all of ourselves to his care and his will.

I hear the Beattitudes calling out the poor in spirit to give up that Pharisee-like pursuit to remove all mystery from our understanding of God. But when we surrender to the mystery of God, we are promised that the kingdom of God is never out of reach.

The Beattitudes invite the mourners to turn over their heavy loads of grief we try to carry alone. Whether it be the pieces of your heart shattered by the loss of someone you love or the debris of a home demolished by divorce, we are promised a comfort that reaches into our deepest pits and our darkness nights.

The Beattiitudes  summon the meek to lay down harsh ultimatums and volatile grudges. For when we stop building walls between us and cease severing the bonds that connect us, we are promised an inheritance that only the Earth can hold.

The Beattitudes call those who hunger and thirst for righteousness to hand over silos of abundance and reservoirs of luxury. And just when we have nothing left to give, we are promised a filling of every shortage.

The Beattitudes invite the merciful to turn in the robes of the judge and put down the stones of the crowd. Whether it be by alleviating callousness with compassion or healing hurt with forgiveness, we are promised such care when we play the role of perpetrator.

The Beattitudes ask the pure in heart to render selfish agendas and carnal passions. For when we exchange “me” for “we” as a guiding principle for life and when passion confines itself between a man and his wife, we are promised to see God as he is and not as we want him to be.

The Beattitudes call out to peacemakers to relinquish all means of violence and any attempts at division. By becoming advocates for unconditional love and ambassadors of reconciliation, we are promised an eternal kinship that God bestows on all his children.

The Beattitudes invite the defamed, the persecuted, and the innocent to surrender preferences for comfort and safety. For when we surrender to God’s protection, what slanderer can steal our joy? What tyrant can rob our happiness? What liar can take away the reward that God has promised?

As we prepare for another amazing year of camp, I think it’s important for both the campers and ourselves to ask, is there anything we fighting to control which the Beattitudes are asking us to give up?

So tonight and throughout the coming week may we the staff seek together to empty ourselves so that we may be filled. May we together choose to make ourselves vulnerable so that we are made strong. And may we together not exhaust ourselves trying to sustain control so that we may feel and know the power of surrender.

CJE