Dinner Theater 2012 Follow Up
The curtain has closed on the 2012 Camp Forest Springs dinner theater.
While I grapple with it’s yearly execution, I am always grateful and excited to see it all come together. This year's show, entitled "It Came Upon a Midnight…Fear!" was the seventh dinner theater that Camp Forest Springs has hosted, and this year, over 700 guests were served - a new record!
We all wrestle with FEAR. Whether it’s merely the dark: that black, blank page where we paint the worst of our nightmares, or its representation, the unknown: that fertile soil in which we’re sure “the worst that could happen” will sprout! We often tend to view FEAR as our enemy. However, is it possible that the real game changer is in how we address it? Some questions that need to be asked :
- Does FEAR play a needed role in our lives?
- Do we FEAR “the worst that can happen” because we know we deserve it?
- Are we FEARING the right thing?
You would think that after Jesus stilled the treacherous, life-threatening storm with a few spoken commands (Mark 4) that the disciples’ FEAR would have followed suit. However, after the wind had ceased and there was a great calm the passage states,
“… they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
“The FEAR of GOD is the beginning of wisdom.”
If God were merely all-powerful, but not good, it would conceive a devasting FEAR. We would have no hope in the face of His wrath with what we deserve.
However, if He were merely good, and not all-powerful, an insecure FEAR would result. He would be incompetent to rescue us from the storms and from ourselves. Both attributes were demonstrated when God sent Jesus to earth to ultimately pay the punishment for what we deserve. Because of this demonstration of LOVE, God is able to take the thing we FEAR, “the worst that can happen”, and use it as His servant. He can redeem our nightmares…for our good and for His purposes.
There is no FEAR in LOVE, but perfect LOVE casts out FEAR. For FEAR has to do with punishment, and whoever FEARS has not been perfected in LOVE. We LOVE because He first LOVED us.”
1 John 4:18-20
That perfect love is available to us in Jesus.
The Dinner Theatre process is a dynamic one for me and there are many rewards. The hard work of the cast and crew and the community that results is one of my favorites. However, this year, the greatest reward has come from hearing a handful of patrons say, through tears, that they felt that this year’s show had been written just for them.
A special thanks to all who attended and hopefully, we’ll see you again next year!
