CWE Pre Camp Devo #10

2 Peter 1:5-9

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.”

James 1:22-24, 27

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

“THE DOER”

As soon as the British Airways flight landed at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, I was on my cell phone to one of my sons who told me that her condition had deteriorated unexpectedly and quite rapidly.  As we fought our way through the massive immigration and custom systems at the airport, I was assured that at least for the moment, she was stable.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we were through the bureaucracy of reentry into the U.S., into our car, and on our way to her house. Upon arriving at this, my childhood home, we went straight to her bedside where it immediately became painfully obvious that this was not a scenario that involved physical recovery.  My mother was dying…and, within a day or so, she did. 

For over 96 years my mother walked on this earth.  She was born on June 4^th, 1915 at home in Hollis, Oklahoma, the first of 4 quadruplet sisters, born that day to Flake and Alma Keys.  Their birth was a modern medical miracle in those days preceding fertility drugs and all of the advances of contemporary medicine.  The 4 sisters, all weighing less than 4 pounds, were placed in ovens with the heat on low (to serve as incubators)to keep the small, delicate, miracle children alive.  From the moment of her extraordinary birth to the end of her extraordinary life, she never lived a single day as ordinary…and this was by choice.  Certainly, at least in her early years, some of that could be contributed to the circumstances of her birth and the curiosity that surrounded it. After all, even the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, had telegraphed his congratulations to my grandfather on the occasion of the birth of the Keys Quadruplets.

Even though my grandparents were very determined that my mother and her sisters would lead a normal life, not wanting them to be subjected to the fame which, at that time, was readily available due to the most unusual circumstances of theirbirth. Despite such efforts, the fact that my mother was a quadruplet in the early part of the 20^th century led to a generous measure of notoriety and personal acclaim,continuing all the way through college and up until marriage finally broke up the famed set of sisters.  However, even upon the marriage of her identical twin, Mona, and even upon the splitting up of the four sisters to go their own ways and to chart their own paths, my mother’s life continued to be anything but ordinary.  Why?  Because she refused to accept ordinary. She refused to accept normal.  She chose to matter, to be set apart, to do instead of to talk, to do instead of to watch, to do instead of to not do.  My mother was a doer, simple as that. 

When she was in her mid-50s two of her closest friends passed away with cancer.  Through the circumstances of their illness, my mother saw a need for ministry.  She saw a need to minister to cancer patients at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston, Texas, which isone of the premier cancer treatment centers in the world…as well as potentially one of the loneliest places in the world.  For the next 30 years, in spite of obstacles from within the hospital, from within the community, and from within her own church, she established a ministry that is emulatedtoday in communities literally all over the world, and that continues to flourish after her death.

In today’s two scripture passages, we are encouraged, actually commanded, to do…simple as that.  Peter implies that he has shared with the believer all that he can share about how to be effective as a Christian.  James tells us that if we hear the word and do not follow it up with action, we miss the point of our faith.  Soon, very soon, you will begin your summer responsibilities.  My question to you, my challenge to you, is simply this:will you be a doer, or a hearer only? Will you choose to possess the qualities that Peter has spoken about in his exhortation in 2 Peter “in increasing measure” or not?  Will you grow in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, brotherly kindness, godliness and love, or not? Will you use this summer as a laboratory for putting your faith into action or not?  Anyone can raise their hands and sing hallelujah.  Anyone can talk the talk.  This summer at Camp Ozark and Camp War Eagle, because the kids deserve it, because I require it, and most importantly, because God demands it, you must and will be a doer…period. The time is rapidly approaching.  I am excited to get started.  You are going to have fun.  You are going to make friends. You are going to create memories.  You are going to have the opportunity to grow. But for all this to happenyou must be willing to do, you must be willing to be A DOER...OR NOT.

On August 19^th,2011, my mother, Roberta Keys Torn, passed peacefully from this life into the next.  In this life she left a legacy of faith, a legacy of love,and most importantly, at least to me, a legacy of action.  In the next life I have no doubt she was greeted with a parade reserved only for those who have lived life according to the dictates of 2 Peter, according to the dictates of  James, Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but most importantly according to the dictates of God,Himself.  My personal goal in life is to make a difference, to matter by being a man of action.  My personal goal for each of you this summer is to help you do the same.  It is the life to which we have been called.  It is the life I saw in my mother.  WELCOME TO CAMP!!!