Playful Messiness

When I was a child I loved getting messy. I wasn’t the child at the roadside selling lemonade. I was the child that got down in the mud and dug for worms, put them in containers and sold them at the roadside for fishermen.

I worked at camps for five summers. It was perfect for me. I love getting messy and camp is a great place to get messy. One of my favorite nights was the overnight. We would camp out under the stars by Lake Michigan. One day we had about 70 campers and we had cooked our meal over the fire, swam in the lake and then played some games on the beach. We were getting set for the evening and just like Florida in Michigan we have sudden storms. And suddenly it was a down pour! Everything including the camper’s pillows and sleeping bags were drenched.

We quickly got the kids under the pavilion, but it was too late. Everything was WET! We were gathered together trying to figure out what to do since the camp didn’t have 70 extra sleeping bags and pillows. Hoping the bus would come… but unsure it would and these were the days before cell phones.

I was tried and frustrated so I walked to the side and watched the rain. I then noticed the HUGE puddles that were forming. My friend Matt walked over, looked at me and said “do it!” I said no, I’ll get to muddy! He smiled and took off in the rain and jumped in the puddle. I couldn’t stand back and watch so I followed. Jumped in and stood up muddy and scraped from the rocks and then 10 campers or so came to join us. We had so much fun in those mud puddles and got SO messy.

The bus finally arrived and I was the first one at the door. The bus driver looked at me and said, “Dana what did you do?” I smiled and said, “Life is messy, faith is messy, and sometimes we just need to play in it!"