I'm not sure - probably not - but it's just possible that if there's a heaven on earth I might have stumbled into it this week. I'm at "Joni Camp" in Murrieta Hot Springs, California. The location for this Joni and Friends Family Retreat is Calvary Chapel Bible College's extremely lovely campus. Last night after we arrived I went to the "Roman Spa" where water from the hot springs flows into a gigantic mosaic-tiled hot tub. O, my goodness! How my sore muscles relished that treat!
The theme for this week of opportunity to serve as a "short term missionary" for Joni Eareckson Tada's ministry through Family Retreats is construction - as in "Extreme Make-Over." Our shirts say simply, "Let's Do It!" - just like the TV show. The verse on the back reads "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil. 4:13) This is big time stuff - the stuff of eternity! "Joni Camp" this week is all about the stuff of eternity built into individual hearts as God begins or continues his work of restoration one heart at a time.
Joni and Friends Family Retreats is a unique concept bringing willing servant volunteers together with persons and families affected by disability. For five days these special persons and families experience fun and rest under the umbrella of God's love in the hands, feet and care of volunteers (like me). I don't know if there's a "money back" guarantee, but it would be a totally safe offer.
I visited a Family Retreat last summer as an observer. I don't know that I have ever seen more of God's love in action than I did at Spruce Lake in Pennsylvania. I was amazed that so many (30 or more) families affected by disability could gather in one spot and all be "loved on" so well as God touched volunteers and participants alike with His redeeming love.
I remember being nervous last summer - wondering if I "knew" enough to face people with needs I didn't know much about, wondering how in the world this concept of Family Retreats could ever be put into action. What I learned then was that it's not about knowing - it's all about being and loving! It's a five-day living picture of what heaven truly will be like when God takes all of His "forever family" to live with Him. The big difference betweend heaven and now is that all our disabilities (whatever form they may take) will be healed forever in heaven. That's a promise! That's the best and most extreme make-over of all!
"Change" seems to be the word of the day (and days) these days. One presidential hopeful is making that his campaign focus. But the problem with a politician talking about "change" but not detailing what change looks like is that "change" is only a word. "Change" MUST be accompanied with action and specifically appropriate actions related to the specific change involved.Barak Obama is all about change if you listen to his words, but he doesn't explain HOW that change is going to happen. He doesn't detail a plan for change.Newly former NY governor Eliot Spitzer is facing change in life, but if his public words from yesterday are any indicator, he's a long way from knowing how to put his tattered life back together - even if he really wants to do so. Talking about "failings" and "not living up to what was expected" are paltry words in his circumstances.Another man I once knew was young, had a beautiful wife and pretty special children. Looking from the outside in, they seemed like the ideal family. But there was HUGE need for heart change! Everything was going from bad to worse due to increasingly bad choices. Was there hope? Was there help? You bet! But hope and help alone are not enough EVER! Beside the "God factor," the other essential is having a heart for change! That's HUGE!Barak Obama talks about change but I don't hear a plan. I hear clever words on the hopeful path to the White House.Eliot Spitzer talks "change" when it really sounds like "How am I going to minimize the pressure here?" It's all about self-protection to minimize personal loss and maximize damage control.The young husband gone way down a bad path didn't get the missing piece either. He wanted the pressure gone and the "status quo" returned. It was pretty amazing to talk to him - to actually even tell him the words he needed to say in order to get turned around and started back on another path. His heart was so far from change that he couldn't even say the words like a parrot. It was pretty obvious - amazingly so!It's having a heart to change that makes the difference! The ancient prophet Jeremiah asks the question, "... Can the leopard change his spots?" (Jer. 13:23) The obvious no-brainer answer is a quick, "Of course not! The leopard is stuck with his spots." The process of "changing a leopard's spots" requires another heart. It's the "when is a leopard not a leopard?" question. And the answer is: when the leopard becomes a lion or whatever instead. Leopards don't become lions easily. Only a lion's heart can turn a leopard into a lion.The illustration probably breaks down but the point is that real, lasting change must come from inside. It requires the painful process of a heart transplant! The heart must be willing to change from the inside out, and only God can do that kind of work! God is the Only One in the heart restoration business! But He is and He does! God regularly changes "leopard spots" one heart at a time! It's not a cosmetic make-over. It's an extreme make-over from the inside out!
