The Kingdom of God is Like Band Camp

by Jacki Popadich

To some, it's known as "Hell Week" -- to others, it is simply known as Band Camp. It's a mess of horns, drummers, flags, bugs and pranks. If you look closely enough, you can see the Kingdom of God in action.

A Work of Dedication

I remember my annual summer ritual of coaching the Color Guard at the Madison Heights Band Camp. From 9 in the morning until 9 at night, we were out in the sun -- marching, twirling and playing our butts off. When the students weren't doing any of this, they had to be running their routines and drills through their heads. If they wanted their show to look good for Visitors Day, they knew it would require constant vigilance.

Practice, Practice, Practice

On the first day of camp, the band looked and sounded pretty bad. But they kept working hard. By Saturday, they were playing their rhythms correctly, marching well, and twirling in sync. The show they put on was looking pretty good, but still far from perfect. They would continue to work on the show all season long, and by the end of October, it would look tight and polished. But until then, they had lots of work to do.

For us, building the Kingdom of God and our faith is not too different from my old band camp experience. The members of the band were far from perfect, as are all of us. Yet they still got out there to give the show their best shot. We have to do the same.

Drop and Give Me Fifty

When the band members messed up a part of the show, they had to do push-ups. This, of course, motivated them to make their effort in the show better.

We do the same thing in our sacrament of reconciliation. We often don't put out our best effort to bring about the Kingdom, and so we need to "drop and give God fifty." From our reconciliation experiences, we learn how to make a better effort.

Already, But Not Yet

The Kingdom of God was once explained to me as "already, but not yet." This means that we may be working toward it, and starting to see the reality of it, but we don't yet see it in the fullest. Watching the band put their show together looked very similar.

The band would march their show out bit-by-bit, and the show kept getting stronger. When they performed it on Visitor's Day, it was "already, but not yet." They had the tune sounding close to what it was supposed to, and the drill was looking okay. However, they still needed precision to really make it stellar.

They worked extremely hard -- and I was always very proud of them. But by the end of the week, they would still have a long way to go. Likewise, we still have a long way to go before we can realize the Kingdom of God. And if we keep polishing our act, we'll get it right in time for Homecoming.

It's not an easy gig for us. Sometimes it's thankless. The bands I coached had to work hard because it's up to them to draw in the fans. We too have to work hard, because it's up to us to spread the Word of God.

And by the way -- if you haven't made a good contribution to the effort recently, you owe God fifty pushups... because the Kingdom of God is like band camp.

Life Applications:

Where have you seen the Kingdom of God in action in your life?
What have you learned from your reconciliation experiences?
How are you contributing to bringing about the Kingdom of God?

Copyright 2002-2007 by Jacki Popadich
All rights reserved.

Copyright 2007 by Jacki Popadich
All rights reserved.