Live Like Camp

There is something about humble servitude that brings me to my knees to beg my God for a passionate fire and unconditional fever to understand the human personality. When my selfish desires and unrequited lusts are forced to the side I have the opportunity to see with unveiled eyes the beauty of the people around me.

My problem is that I like to be a chameleon. Changing colors according to my crowd and picking the skin I wear in correspondence to their rank. I work the people around me because of the barrier within my captured soul. I plea to them that I am open and vulnerable but yet I keep to my quiet failings and dark secrets.

So what of the Light?

I firmly believe that Jesus walked this earth and saw everyone as they truly were. A prostitute that needs saving, a tax collector that needs humbling, and an imprisoned man with a voice. He didn’t change skins but rather walked the earth with the same skin that was later torn and beaten for our depravity.

This summer I have the privilege of seeing many skins. Some are bruised from their childhood, some are broken from their insecurity, and some are dry from the lack of Living Water. However, not a single one of them is dull for the love of Christ is displayed to them so fully by this camp and by these people. My summer staff companions and I get to pick up pieces of their broken hearts and point them to God. The beautiful thing is that He scoops them up with the joy of a Heavenly Father. He sits with them on His throne and tells them about His love through beautiful words and pictures.

Who can deny that beauty?

For the lack of earthly compensation there is an insurmountable reward waiting at the Gates of Heaven. The pettiness of my human condition is that I count my blessings then look to the future with fear. I rebuke that now and find joy in the adventure of the unknown. For our lives are uncertain but His everlasting faithfulness is a secure boulder that I stand tip toe on while I look to the horizon painted with lovingkindness and grace. So much grace.

As the summer comes to an end in these next few weeks I point my heart in thankfulness for the provisions and lessons gained from this experience. I cannot seem to put the happenings of working on staff at a summer camp into a steady stream of words. It is an understanding between us that we simply laugh about the hardships and embrace the struggle of it all . For the time comes when we drink in the sweet honey of salvation and see the tangible fruits of the seeds planted in our little ones.

Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that only the camper’s lives are being changed at summer camp. My life will never be the same because of it. I love, serve, and learn better because of daily occurrences that happen on the grounds of Shepherd’s Fold Ranch. So I encourage you to live your life like you are at summer camp. Your body may ache a little more, you may find yourself lacking an incredible amount of sleep, and you may find yourself doing extremely silly things in front of large audiences without a care in the world. You also might find yourself speaking in the prophetic, breaking chains from past occurrences, and living in community that is unshakable.

Do not get wrapped up in the sin of everydayness but rather ask for wonder. Take His hand as He leads you on an adventure of grasping a little more understanding of how deep His love is. He calls you by name and looks at you with a fierce compassion. In a world of chaos seek Him in all you do. Accept His forgiveness and move on. Christianity is not a chase between us trying to capture Christ with our good works and following biblical law but rather a relationship of Him pursuing our hearts and our spirits tying together in a fruitful relationship.

“Just as the sunrise of faith requires the sunset of our former unbelief, so the dawn of trust requires letting go of our craving spiritual consolations and tangible reassurances. Trust at the mercy of the response it receives is a bogus trust.”