I’ve been visiting Camp Cross for over 10 years. We attended a Labor Day Family Camp with our St. James’ (Pullman, WA) parishioners and I enjoyed the glorious natural beauty, but also the fellowship among the participants. Christian community in a non-parish setting is one feature of Camp Cross that has me reminding others to “keep comin’ back! “

While wading at Crescent Beach, my wife Alison relayed her metaphor for her relationship to God.  In the cool water, she floats effortlessly.  As she returns to the rocky shore, her body becomes heavy as she leaves the (holy) water and works to carry herself. It’s harder and harder to gain ones footing.  Yet, a loving arm reaches out to help her gain stability. This arm is God’s love in the form of your loving friend. Together, you can walk the journey on hot, dry land, until you once again return to refreshing water for relief.

Additionally, Camp Cross is a holy place where I have seen miracles happen.  Of course, miracles are in the eyes of the beholder and subject to perspective. This week I have seen the miracle of change. Mid-high campers arrived on Sunday, with anxiety, fears and few friends. In just a few days, I have seen them transformed. They’ve bonded with each other, shared intense experiences, been challenged in their views of faith and even improved their table manners (yes, a great miracle indeed!).  In all seriousness, the joy shared in a small group or gathered around a summer campfire is a holy miracle repeated again and again here.  I’ve noticed another transforming miracle recently.  As I look at this year’s staff members, several have spent many years coming to Camp Cross. They’ve loved being a camper with all the newness that experience brings. Camp Cross can be an intense emotional experience of faith on a young person’s own terms, far from their parish home.  It’s their mountaintop where they gain spiritual insight. Some grow into being a counselor, learning leadership skills shepherding a small group.  This is a critical stage in the faith formation of young people. Of that group, some continue serving as permanent staff members, gaining more leadership skills at the next level, long after coming to Camp Cross for the first time.  This chain of transformative experiences shapes the lifelong faith of many.

Wednesday night, we used a meditation from Taize to focus in the darkness of the cool evening, sitting on a floating dock.  Many relaxed on their backs, pondering the universe, gazing up into the vast expanse of stars. Some reported seeing up to five shooting stars and several orbiting satellites were visible.  Amid the cool breeze, surrounded by both intimate friends and endless cosmos, God is good; Very good; Always.

I rummaged through book stall after book stall, looking for just the right thing. It had to be engaging. It had to have some solid connections to the daily lives of real people. It had to have good theology. An Episcopal author would be a definite “plus.” Discussion questions would be the icing on the cake.

I hit pay dirt at the Church Publishing exhibit. There it was: “Your Daily Life is Your Temple,” by Anne Rowthorn, an engaging book with real-life connections, a theologically-sound book by an Episcopal author. It was on sale at an irresistibly good price. “I could write some discussion questions myself,” I thought.

The book really is a good conversation starter and is a natural for a spiritu­ality group. Its focus is on the ways we encounter God in daily life – places like our families, our friendships, our work, our homes, the way we manage our money. Rowthorn invites us into these places through her own stories, memories and reflections.

She writes, “To seek and find God in a myriad of ways every day of our lives, we do not need the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral. We do not need the vision quest in New Mexico to experience and follow God in our lives. We are more likely to feel our loving God reaching to us in an encouraging smile of a loved one, in the hug of a child returning home, in the kindness shown us by a complete stranger, in a red sunset lighting up the western sky, and in the still of the descending night.”

Rowthorn, who has lived in and traveled to many places all over the world, shares her family’s experiences with the grace of a natural story-teller. It is easy to connect with her experiences that help us discover God in our own.

This is also a book about the spirituality of practice – those things we do that grow out of our spiritual formation – our formation in the faith. When she tells stories of hospitality, we think of our own. When she describes the challenge of using our money in wise and sound ways, we get some insight into our own household economics. When she writes of discovering God in art, we remember those works of art that have moved us.

It is a book that can widen our every-day world a bit by reminding us that God is in the midst of all. And it is also a book that she hopes will be helpful both to people who are steady church-goers and those whose membership and attendance are a little less consistent. It is, she says, for “anyone who seeks to live passionately and can be coaxed into looking at the ordinary circumstances of your daily routine as building blocks for a more passionate life.”

Maybe this would be a good book for a group of folks who are new to the church-a starter book about where we find God in our daily life that could lead toward that more traditional inquirers’ class. A book that might help folks form some of their questions.

If you’re interested in giving it a try, I have a set of discussion questions. Request them via e-mail at kristip@spokanedio­cese.org.