On oxymoron not so much

Wow! I didn't realize until now how long it's been since I last posted. I wanted to talk about the retreat at Camp Brosend last weekend. I was in a pretty weird place emotionally, but that's another story to be told another time. First, I wanted to talk about Camp Brosend. I love that place so much. To me, it is just so incredibly beautiful; there's always something to look at and be amazed by. But there are a lot of places like this, so why is this one special to me? Over the weekend, I finally figured it out. Fall retreat at Camp Brosend 2006. That was when I pretty much became "sungirl" I guess. I remember it was October and all the leaves had changed colors and I watched the sun go down and was astounded by how majestic the colors looked with the sun behind them.. It was probably the first time in my life that I was shocked, smacked in the face by the beauty of God's creation. I couldn't contain myself. I had to show everyone. For the rest of the weekend I ran around rejoicing in God's light. My family group would be talking and I'd have to interrupt and say, "Look, isn't the sun amazing?" I was overwhelmed and overjoyed. And now I know why Camp Brosend is so special to me. I'd never been able to pinpoint the transformation before, but there it was. Next, I wanted to talk about something kind of confusing. As a girl, a Bible verse close to my heart is 1 Peter 3:3-4.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

I guess to me, this is kind of a goal. Then, there's this other verse that I really like, but I always thought it was kind of contradictory. It's 2 Timothy 1:7.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.

So how do you have a spirit of power and of gentleness??? Gentle power, an oxymoron n'est-ce pas? Not so much. Duh!! The Holy Spirit, hello!! Doesn't God exhibit a gentle power sometimes?? I got a chance to witness this at the retreat. Eric discussed unity within our group and told people to pray with someone who you needed to maybe mend a relationship with. People paired off. Good stuff happened. It was gentle. It was powerful. There you go, my mind's at peace with this one now. Prayer is the perfect example of gentle power. Prayer is so powerful, yet there's no brute force or anything like that. How amazing!! And I'm much more okay with being gentle now. Gentle can be powerful...not that I'm power hungry or anything. Gentle doesn't have to mean babied, just nice, approachable, comforting. There you go.