I was walking back to my cabin getting ready for evening worship when I saw the beautiful colors in the sky and then in the lake. I walked down to the water’s edge and just watched as the colors deepened and the light faded. The water did not have a ripple in it. It was restful and renewing.
Retreats and camps have been at the center of spiritual renewal for as long as there has been people. The children of God were formed in the wilderness wanderings. Elijah found himself and his strength in a cave in the desert, David’s psalms speak often of his time alone with God, Jesus frequently went alone to meet with God. St Francis, was born into a wealthy family where he was afforded all that money could buy. As a young man he was sent off to war. He was traumatized by the cruelty. Upon his return home he flounder, looking for a new way of life. He found Christ. Eventually, he renounced his wealth and began to preach and teach about Jesus to all who would listen. He retreated from the world, but followers were quickly drawn to him. Still he went away often by himself to reflect. He often spent nights in caves. He actually thought they had been created by the earthquakes associated with the death of Jesus and he thought of them as passages into the heart of ‘god. His complete transformation by the love of Christ has inspired people for over 800 years. Those transformations often happened in caves.
G. K. Chesterton wrote a biography about Francis. He believed the cave experiences turned Francis’ world upside down.
“The man who went into the cave was not the man who came out again...He looked at the world as differently from other men as if he had come out of that dark hole walking on his hands...This state can only be represented in symbol; but the symbol of inversion is true in another way. If a man saw the world upside down, with all the trees and towers hanging head downwards as in a pool, one effect would be to emphasise the idea of dependence. There is a Latin and literal connection; for the very word dependence only means hanging.
Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi, 102-103.
I think COVID was a dark cave for our world. Now we have come out and it seems like the world is upside-down. Things I counted on have seem to evaporate. People have disappeared. The future looks out of focus. Ideas that once made sense now seem ridiculously impossible. With Francis, I am thankful that the trees are not falling from the sky, that God is holding the world together and I’m trying to get my equilibrium to adjust to this new upside-down world. I covet your prayers.
PS. The picture above is upside-down. You can tell with the small grass blades at the top of the photo.