Lessons from Camp

in four colored wristbands

This summer, Thousand Pines Christian Camp did something I haven’t seen done before. On gospel night, they not only gave time for people to accept Christ as their Savior, but they asked everyone to make one decision or another. Campers could remain skeptical about God, return to the Lord after a time of rebellion, or commit to deepening their relationship with the Lord. They asked everyone to come forward to receive a colored bracelet representing the decision they’d made.

Green was for new believers. White was for skeptics. Orange was for Prodigals. And Blue was for maturing believers. Each bracelet had a phrase representing the choice the campers had made. The green was “His Forgiveness.” The white was “His Truth." The orange was “His Will.” And the blue was “His Call.”

I thought this was a great way for the campers to declare their decisions to everyone. The following day the campers attended seminars for the colored bracelet that they’d chosen.

The majority of our church group chose blue bracelets for the maturing believer, and I did too . . . until I attended the orange bracelet seminar and realized that I’m too rebellious to be a blue bracelet kind of gal. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be either running away from the Lord or towards Him my whole life with small periods of abiding quietly in His arms.

The camp band led our orange bracelet seminar. They began by reading the prodigal son story and then passing around a keychain labyrinth for us to see. A labyrinth is similar to a maze, except there’s no start, no finish, and it has a center. The point of a labyrinth is to wander in contemplation. At times, the wanderer is closer to the center; at other times, farther away.

Likewise, sometimes we feel close to the Lord, and sometimes we feel far. Sometimes, we run and hide from God; other times we run towards Him. Sometimes our thoughts are correct about how God wants things; sometimes they’re way off. I thought this was an excellent visual for our spiritual wanderings.

Photo by Karolina Kołodziejczak on Unsplash