Life Changing Love

Jesus changed my life through Joni and friends family retreat.  He didn’t do it over night, I’m not really sure if He took a week or longer to do it but He got us there in both senses of the word literally and figuratively.  I did not choose to go, I first went because Dad was asked to go be the camp pastor.

The deep love of Jesus was there but I didn’t have eyes to see it. I remember that specific retreat at Mission Springs; we had an Olympian theme that year. I remember the name of my STM but I also recall the tween program I was in performing some uplifting scriptural song that matched the Olympic theme in front of all our parents. I did not participate, I was up there on  the Redwood deck surrounded by smiles, singers and performers but I sat there like a bump on a log. I sat in stubborn silence because I didn’t understand what was going on, I thought I was above these disabled people, so I shouldn’t have to preform I was even embarrassed to be up there.

I don’t know exactly when Jesus opened my eyes to see His deep unfathomable love. To help explain how I see Jesus’ love at Joni and friends family retreat, I am going to take you to a Yuba/Sutter Symphony pops concert. Imagine a large church congregational room with three or more sections of pews and chairs, a large stage that fit a small symphony.  I was in the front row of chairs on the far left, Dad was in the trombone section of the symphony. I enjoyed these pops concerts especially because they featured songs from beloved movies.  This particular pops concert featured three specific Disney songs; Part of Your World from the little Mermaid, Out There from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I think I Can Go the Distance from Hercules. Those similarly themed songs were sung so beautifully and passionately, they played on my heart like an instrument. I felt emotionally stiffled, I had to leave the building so I could breath.  Those three songs speak of discontent of this world and longing to belong.  HHHmmm…   Sound familiar?   Sadly, that’s like an anthem for the disabled right?  For the typical people and disabled people that know Jesus this can apply to longing for Heaven.  Joni and Friends family retreat is sometimes viewed as a piece of Heaven, but not quite because I can imagine it and I know for a fact Heaven will be disease free with not a wheelchair in sight. Family retreats display Jesus’ love in abundance to the whole family. There is so much disability there it cancels out mine and I feel free to enjoy fellowship with Jesus’s people and I truly enjoy a sense of belonging. That is just one way God displays His amazing grace and boundless love at family retreat.  Joni and friends has changed my life in that Jesus has given me more compassion and purpose to love people affected by disability.  You mustn’t take my word for it, you must go experience the prodigious love of God yourself at Joni and friends family retreat.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.