Staff cheers campers along their epic race
I’m not sure anyone saw the guy who won Spokane’s Bloomsday race quite as many times as I did. Standing on the corner of Broadway and Oak, cheering at the top of my lungs, I could see that tall Kenyan in the eyes of every boy and girl who looked up at me, heard my obnoxious calls for speed, and started sprinting the last half mile of the race. In that brief moment, their lives were epic; they were in the front of the race, their score mattered, their speed mattered, their fight mattered. My only hope was that there was a long line of people cheering, after us Camp Cross folks and our sign, losing their voices to convince the last 30,000 people who crossed the Bloomsday finish line that their races were “epic.”
It’s easy to forget our race is epic. In a world of billions, where there is always someone who is better, faster and stronger, how can we justify the feeling that our times matter? It’s easy to forget that our faith journey is epic, amidst a fast changing world where truth bends, hardens or fades with each fad, election, and new religion. But it is epic, it’s the only journey that matters, and we have been promised that in the face of the ultimate reality, in the face of the One Truth, in the face of God, we can stand and say that our journey is epic.
When I was out there cheering, the reaction that most surprised me was that of the adults. When the honest “thank yous” were called out from the middle of the running mob, I was humbled. Our epic journey was honestly supportive, one screamed out over the din of thousands of pedestrians; my race was our race, their race was everyone’s. We were celebrating something beyond numbers, scores, and times; we were celebrating an epic and unreasonably loud communion through a road race of all things.
The staff and counselors at Camp Cross love to cheer obnoxiously. We love to scream out for more speed, more passion, more love, more joy, more dancing, and more Jesus. All of us have seen it in the eyes of our campers, and even in the staff’s eyes-the look of the epic, endless summer. Our faith is epic, it does matter, and at Camp Cross we do all we can to remind people of that, reignite that fire, not of doctrine or rule, but of life that made us all fall in love with God in the first place.
At Camp, we have races with winners. There will always be the cool kids, the bookish kids, the outgoing kids, and the quiet kids. And at Camp we will always have kids starting an epic faith journey, a journey that transcends those labels, measures, and social boundaries, and through swimming, archery, crafts and canoeing becomes the unforgettable reminder of our epic faith.
At Camp Cross, we will cheer, and laugh and cry and pray, for our epic faith. And after the summer, we all have to keep cheering. We often wonder how to bring Camp home; remind your camper (young or old) that their journey is epic and so is yours. That they matter, and that you always have to keep moving, sometimes with the fiery irrational exuberance of the victor, and sometimes with the knowing and passionate eyes of a saint. Yell”thank you” from across the crowd for their inspiration. We at Camp Cross welcome you to rediscover your epic journey, and cheer for us as we rediscover ours.
