Lisa J. Camp

Throw Back Thursday (TBT) is when everyone takes to social media on Thursday and posts an old picture of themselves.  We're going to go a slightly different direction and use TBT to post an old blog or article you might not have read the first time go around.   This past month, we've talked a lot about our journey with God - leaving the familiar, beginning with boldness and that awkward in between time.  The series has resonated with a few, and I realized there are people wondering if they ought to be doing something other than what they're currently doing.  It has raised questions about contentment and about purpose and more than a few questions about timing; so to help those who are more restless than ever, I give you a TBT from 2011... ----------   ----------   ----------   ----------  "The Glory of Obscurity" Between all the responsibilities you already have and the opportunities for more activity that present themselves  every day, you ha

You've left everything you've ever known.  You've crossed a sea when its waters parted on either side of you (and a million or so of your friends) so you could keep your Birkenstocks looking new.  You wandered through a wilderness learning how to pick up and move at a moments notice for 40 years, discovering this God who wants to be your God.  You've discovered that He's worth knowing and He's willing to make Himself known, and He's gracious enough to tell you how to please Him unlike all the other gods of your day. ... And now He wants to give you a life you could never have imagined 41 years ago - one of endless inheritance, everlasting significance, and eternal life. The only thing that lies between it and you is this... another body of water to cross.  Not as deep as the Red Sea, but deep enough.  Not as wide, but wide enough.  And this time, your enemies are not behind you, they're ahead of you on the other side.  Not as treacherous as a midnigh

We call her Coco - she's three & she plays soccer. AuntLisa cheers for her... very loudly. I have a confession to make.  I love sports and I love cheering for sports... loudly, very loudly.  I'm the fan in the stands you don't want to sit in front of.  I'm the aunt in the bleachers whom everyone looks at through the corner of their eye.  And I don't care.  I believe there is a reasonable expectation of loud cheering at a sporting event.  If you want a quiet sporting experience, nod off to golf or tennis; but don't look at me like a science project gone awry just because I yell for my babies at the top of my voice.  I have the unique perspective from the stands that allows me to see how great they are, and they might not remember that in the heat of a game.  Kids need encouragement.  People in general need encouragement - especially those who are trudging around a wilderness experience. Israel had a hard time in that awkward state of flux between the R

Fishing trips when I was a girl were epic adventures.  We would load up and head to the Old Stone Creek Bridge - this dirt road bridge over the Goose Creek in southeast Kansas where my family spent many holidays.  We'd picnic there and sunbathe on the sandbar while my dad and brothers fished, and we'd occasionally float to the deeper, shadier waters on the other side of the bridge.  This handmade edifice that predated all of us by decades if not a century still stands stalwart in the Kansas Flint Hills. We'd plan these outings for days - talk about it a lot, start gathering supplies on the front porch and in the kitchen. "Don't eat that! It's for the picnic!"  Dad would drag out his fishing poles and check the lines, organize his lures, find his prized antique minnow bucket.  Then on the morning of the trip, we'd wake at an unforgivable hour, throw on swim suits and shorts and stumble bleary-eyed to the car that dad had already loaded.  If it wasn

My entire college marketing class can be boiled down to one statement - "Know Your Audience" .  Sure the class was two days a week for an entire semester.  Yes, we watched Zig Ziglar videos every Wednesday.  And the instructor could never remember my name and called my friend Juanita by the name Rodriga (is that even a name?) for 18 weeks, but the greatest takeaway was this - know who you're talking to before you start talking.   Know your audience.  Know what makes them think, what they love, what they do, how they live.  You will go far in your communication the more you know those with whom you are communicating. I've since learned an equally important truth - when it comes to reading someone else's messages, know their audience.  Knowing who was meant to receive a message is vital to understanding the message at all.  This is never more true than when interpreting the Bible. The Scriptures were written by Jews, for Jews, meticulously preserved by Jews and