During one camp session this summer, I ate with a family attending LLFC for the first time. Their two teenage girls loved the fishing, slip n’ slides, and zip lines. Meanwhile the parents were struck by a new sense of freedom. On that hot summer afternoon, they shared how Family Camp helped them experience true freedom in their journey with Jesus. Rather than obligation and duty, they discovered real joy, laughter, and fun. They had felt permission, as a family, to simply “be” who God had created them to be.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of Laity Lodge Family Camp is being with families in the process of sanctification. We are all in this process because the Christian life is a process rather than a destination. In theological terms justification and sanctification are two sides of the same coin. We are justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus. We experience sanctification each day as we learn to live and love more like Jesus.
At the end of his letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul writes,
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (ESV)
We hope families who experience LLFC will enjoy space to connect with one another and with God in significant ways. We hope God will initiate the process of sanctification in profound, life giving ways. We hope God will show them true freedom. For this particular family this summer, and hopefully many others, God surely did it.
Questions to consider:
