I am leaving on a jet plane tonight for NY, Schroon lake NY to be exact. This little town hidden in the Adirondack park in Upstate NY is the place where I called home for 30 years. Throughout those 30 years I have had some unimaginable fun, whether it be in the summer skiing or riding horses or saving two people from the river in which they capsized their small canoe. My friend and I heard someone yell, "Little help here!".
I also went to school there, middle school, highschoool and one year of Bible college at Word of Life. Now Word of Life for those of you that do not know could be characterized as a medium security prison at times mixed with some Military school tactics for good cheer. I was one of those local kids who at one point was called to the Dean's office and honestly did not know if it was for, having physical contact with my girlfriend, going to movies, going to high school dances or other things. The Irony of it now is that recently I was asked by one of my friends, who is now the Dean of Admissions, to speak at the annual Father Son Banquet. It is so interesting becasue I am going back there, that place where one could recieve "demerits" for walking on the grass, so to speak.
I wonder what it will be like, my friend already told me that the numbers seemed low due to the weather. I emailed him and said, "maybe they are low due to who you have chosen to speak."
I am a little nervous about going back, I am much different now. I would not say for the better, but maybe not the worst either, just different. Everyone has a philosophy, and what I like about that word is people say it like it is this "absolute", like one might say "well our philosophies are just different, we do not allow long hair at our college, it is just our philosophy". The funny thing is a "philosophy" is just an opinion, but that word sounds a lot more "absolute" or mystical or spiritual.
My philosophy is much different than the folks I will be coming into contact with this week. I am not even sure what the dress code is yet! I brought a sport coat to be safe. The last time I was on this property My friend Bumper and I worked there. He was the camp's assistant director and I was just a life guard. Some of the fun we had I will save myself the embarrassment of letting all the viewers here of it, but it is amazing to say that least that after all these years and schooling, for some reason I am qualified now to "educate" these fine men and their sons.
We will see. My dad is going with me, and it is funny but I am the speaker and he is my dad. It seems like it should be the other way around. I am going to be 31 soon and it seems like yesterday I was at Word of Life running from the security or dressing up like snowcampers and raising hell on the staff. With our full face snow masks we attacked people, launched snowballs and through people in the snow. The word was out for the "tall campers who were causing trouble". No one could see their faces, no one knew it was us. As I sat in the counsellor meeting and heard what we needed to look for to stop this attack I laughed to myself thinking about when we would strike next.
I am speaking on the issue of "Like Father, Like Son" . I will try to integrate the idea that although our culture paints God the Father as this "town sheriff" in the OT who judges and condemns and His Son comes later and balances things out with his love. I want to point out 2 names for God in Genesis, Elohim and Yahweh. Elohim is this strong creator in Gen 1 and he is all-powerful, but then in Gen 2, we see a new name for God "LORD God"- Yahweh, A God who is faithful, a God who comes to Adam and Eve on there level, "Walking in the cool of the day" He could have pulled an "Elohim" on them, you know like, "Oh , You want to disobey me? Zap you are gone man, Oh I see you hiding over there, zap, now where are your legs?, Oh they are just bloody stumps, etc." But he doen't do that he wants to be known to them as Yahweh, A God who is faithful. We see this when he sends Moses to Pharoah, He does not want to be known as El ohim, that is already how the Jewish people view Pharoah, see El was not a knew name for God it had been around a long time and meant other Gods too. I wonder what kind of Dad I am, Am I an Elohim Dad or a Yahweh Dad? As I prepare to leave today I hope that maybe God will use me. I have been humbled alot in the last 10 years since I stepped foot on that campus. We will see, and hey it is not like they have to ask me back next year..........
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