Words of Encouragement from Jess Speropulos, August 25, 2020

Words of Encouragement

from Jess Speropulos

August 25, 2020

Growing up, I was a Girl Scout. We did crafts and service projects, earned badges, went camping, and canoeing (my favorite). My first taste of being an actual, overnight camper was as an eight- year-old at Camp Tanasi, a Girl Scout camp about 45 minutes away from my home in Knoxville, Tennessee. I slept in a platform tent with four other girls, there was no electricity (except in the bathhouse), and we had a horrendous thunder storm my very first night. I loved it. I was hooked.

Every summer, I spent more and more time at Camp Tanasi. I signed up for back-to-back weeks as a camper, and, eventually, I became a junior counselor when I was 16. That particular summer, I was asked to help lead a 26-mile canoe trip to Norris Dam. I, along with four other staff, helped lead a gaggle of 11-year-olds across this giant lake--building lean-tos for shelter along the way. By the end of the trip, my hands were blistered; I was sunburnt, smelly, and exhausted. I had also loved every minute of it. I relished being outside in God’s glorious creation.

Twenty years on from that exhausted, adventurous Girl Scout, I found myself, once again, in a canoe. This time I was accompanied by my mom and my two daughters--paddling around the lake at Fall Creek Falls State Park. Lucy enjoyed identifying the different birds she saw, a specialty of hers, and Sylvie tried her hardest to help us paddle. We jokingly called this trip our “isolation vacation,” but I realized, in that moment, that my kids were not missing out at all. They were just being present—relishing the gifts of God’s glorious creation.

We have suffered such great losses during this time, but, I believe, God has also given us some great gifts. My family has done more hiking, biking, swimming, and exploring in the past six months than I would have ever imagined. My sense of normal and safety has been dismantled by an invisible enemy, but God has continually brought me back to my senses through the sights, smells, and sounds of His creation.

In 1901, shortly after the Rev. Maltbie Davenport Babcock’s death, his wife published a poem he had written titled This is My Father’s World. We know this poem as a hymn, and the lyrics of this hymn have become part of my internal soundtrack throughout the past six months:

This is my Father's world,

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is our Father’s world, and He has called us to be His children. He has not left us, and He will carry us through. And, He is constantly reminding us that, “…though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

Jess

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