God has provided me with a unique opportunity through my time at Camp Highland this year. Having just graduated from UGA back in May, I am currently searching for a job as a music educator; however, I felt that the Lord was calling me to return to serve at camp again this summer, which put a temporary halt on the job hunt. So to compromise, I remained at camp only for the first half of the summer, and now I am back at home to resume my search. At this point, there are no prospects, but the Lord has opened up the option of joining the full time staff at Camp Highland starting in the fall. I don't know if that is what He has chosen as my path or if it's just my desire to do what's easiest, so I still have a lot of praying to do, and I would appreciate your prayers on the matter as well.
Anyway, back to my original point, because I am now at home only halfway through the summer, my time at camp is still fresh in my mind. And in my journal. I was going back through my notes from the summer, and God brought me across several lessons He had introduced to me earlier and which are still very powerful and relevant now. So I am going to try to post some of the things He has been teaching me so far this summer.
One day during staff training, it was raining pretty hard during our Time Alone with God (TAG)—well, it rained several days during staff training, but God spoke through it this one particular morning. I am just going to record what I wrote that morning.
"We are having TAG time under a pavilion in the rain. The sound of water hitting the tin roof is roaring all around us, but our silence in communing with God is louder than the storm. When we were being briefed for today's TAG, I could barely hear the instructions. Now the roar of the rain has become louder and more awesome, but we are kept dry by the roof over our heads, and we continue to listen for Your voice.
In the storms of my life, I need to learn to sit and rest in Your shelter. Too often I stand and wander around in Your presence, complaining about the rain that keeps me from going out. But that is the purpose of the shelter in the storm: to keep us in Your presence and in the path of Your commands when everything around me will leave stains. I want to go out into the world and take on Satan's armies, but Your shelter lets me know that here is where You want me."
We have a pretty loud and talkative staff this year (not necessarily a bad thing—we love community), which has also been reflected in our campers each week. So for all 50-60 of us to be sitting silently under a single pavilion in the pouring rain was incredible. The silence was powerful and almost tangible, despite the roar of the rain. There's a lot of life's noise roaring all around me right now, and I often to contribute to it with my doubts and worry and my need to be active. But the Lord reminds me that stillness is not inactivity but holy rest. I need to remember to make time to draw back and be quiet and wait on God. This will give me the rest I need to regain my strength and energy for when the time comes to be active.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Dressed at the Quarry
It's crazy how fast time flies by. It's hard to believe that I'll be graduating from UGA in a matter of months. I'm doing my student teaching this semester, ten weeks in a middle school and five in a high school, and I have to say that my time in the middle school has been incredible so far. I'm learning a lot really quickly, and not just about music and teaching. The Lord has given me a unique opportunity to grow in my knowledge of Him and my role in the plan He has for me in a "secular" public school setting. It helps that, despite the polar differences between our personalities, my cooperating teacher and I share the same faith in our Savior. It has been awesome getting to see practical applications of gospel-centered living in the education field, and God has been teaching me a lot of things about Himself and His Church through none other than music analogies.
One particular analogy that hit me today actually started to sneak into my mind last weekend. My discipleship partner and I have been reading 1 Kings to become more familiar with history in the Old Testament, so on Saturday, I read chapter 6 on Solomon's work on the Jewish temple. The part that stuck out to me as I was reading it was verse 7: "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built." What's interesting to me about this verse is that the image of the quiet temple site is like a picture of heaven: we are the stones and blocks found at the quarry, and only those that are dressed where they are found are suitable to be used in the building of the Temple, the Body of Christ. Any stone that arrived at the temple site unprepared would have been considered useless for the work required of it and would have been discarded. Likewise, the Day of Judgment will be too late for us to dress ourselves for the Lord's service. Only those who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ here in this quarry of living stones called Earth will be approved for the high honor of being used as a building block in the Temple of our Lord. All others will discarded at the Gate. No work of sanctification will be done at Heaven's Gates. No tool of trials will be heard there.
Now, this revelation was an exciting find as it is, but then Monday rolled around, and the lesson came up as a relevant topic in the day's band classes. The bands are currently in preparation for Large Group Performance Evaluations (LGPE) and our spring concert. As a result, there has been a process going on of refining the ensemble that will be going to LGPE. This means that those students who do not know their music are being removed. They still remain in the band and participate in class, but they are not included in the honor band that will be going to LGPE. Each individual must know his or her part before the whole ensemble can rehearse together. If some students are coming to rehearsal with wrong notes and rhythms, things which should be hashed out in their practicing at home, then the musical needs that are supposed to be addressed in group rehearsals cannot be appropriately addressed. The sweetness of a cake cannot be adjusted if the baker is using salt instead of sugar. Like the temple blocks, each musician must come to rehearsal with his or her part prepared if quality music is to be produced. When each stone is prepared—when musician is prepared—only then can they be put together and decorated to make a presentable, appealing masterpiece.
This lesson was followed up on Thursday when one of the sixth grade classes repeatedly failed to keep a steady beat. A question came to mind, to which several of the kids thought they had an answer, but they were trying to justify their thinking when no justification was available. When the class failed to keep a steady beat, I turned the metronome on and put it on the overhead speakers; they were able to stay together then. So the question arose: If you can stay together and keep a steady beat by listening, what happens when the beat you are listening to is not steady? If I am asking you to get your steady beat by watching me, and nobody is watching me, how do any of you know that your tempo is the right tempo? The right answer? There's no way to know. The only way is to watch the conductor. But even if one person is watching and everyone is listening to that one person, how do you know that he or she is right? Plus, how are you going to hear that one person over the deafening distractions caused by everyone else playing over that one person? Again, these were rhetorical questions to get the students to realize that the only way to stay together at the right tempo is by watching the director. They are not yet at the level at which they should be listening to each other. At this point, my goal is almost to get them to ignore each other when they play so that they only hear what they are playing individually in relation to the tempo I am showing them. Only when each and every individual has learned to watch and stay with the conductor will they be at the level at which they can properly listen to each other. Only when each one knows his part and knows it in relation to what I dictate is the steady beat can they begin to make their notes and rhythms a musical part of the creative whole.
Now take that same lesson and imagine the band as the Church and the director as Jesus. Jesus Himself said that "the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (John 5:19). If we are all listening to each other to find the footsteps of God, how do we know that we are following the right path? Even if one member of the Church is watching the Father and we listen to him, how do we know that he is pursuing holiness according to Scripture? And how are we to clearly hear him over the distractions of this world and all the false gospels being preached? The answer? We cannot except by keeping our eyes on Christ. And not just one of us or a few of us, but each and every single member of the Body must have his eyes on our heavenly Conductor. And not all of us plays the same part in the divine orchestra. We must each know our part, our role in God's plan for all of Creation, before the Holy Spirit can unite us and refine us into a harmony pleasing to the Lord. Only then, when every individual has his eyes on the Cross, when we are each in a right relationship with God, can we listen to one another and come into the right relation with one another. Only when every block is dressed to the proper specifications can every block be put together as a whole to create the Temple. When the whole is not united to the One, the whole cannot truly be a whole. When the whole is united to the One, only then are we wholly united as one.
It's funny: when God was sharing this revelation with me earlier today, I was starting to get a little annoyed because I was trying to read and couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking about all these cool lessons I was learning through my student teaching and all the lessons I wanted to teach my students. Then this whole message solidified, and I had to stop out of sheer amazement at the way God uses everything to display His glory and His sovereign hand in all things. I am so thankful that He has set me on this path as a music educator, with music and Scripture so finely tuned in perfect harmony for me to hear and see in what is to be my everyday profession. May we all keep our eyes on our heavenly Conductor, and may we all play our parts for His glory alone, that we may be in perfect harmony with one another as a clear reflection of Him.
One particular analogy that hit me today actually started to sneak into my mind last weekend. My discipleship partner and I have been reading 1 Kings to become more familiar with history in the Old Testament, so on Saturday, I read chapter 6 on Solomon's work on the Jewish temple. The part that stuck out to me as I was reading it was verse 7: "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built." What's interesting to me about this verse is that the image of the quiet temple site is like a picture of heaven: we are the stones and blocks found at the quarry, and only those that are dressed where they are found are suitable to be used in the building of the Temple, the Body of Christ. Any stone that arrived at the temple site unprepared would have been considered useless for the work required of it and would have been discarded. Likewise, the Day of Judgment will be too late for us to dress ourselves for the Lord's service. Only those who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ here in this quarry of living stones called Earth will be approved for the high honor of being used as a building block in the Temple of our Lord. All others will discarded at the Gate. No work of sanctification will be done at Heaven's Gates. No tool of trials will be heard there.
Now, this revelation was an exciting find as it is, but then Monday rolled around, and the lesson came up as a relevant topic in the day's band classes. The bands are currently in preparation for Large Group Performance Evaluations (LGPE) and our spring concert. As a result, there has been a process going on of refining the ensemble that will be going to LGPE. This means that those students who do not know their music are being removed. They still remain in the band and participate in class, but they are not included in the honor band that will be going to LGPE. Each individual must know his or her part before the whole ensemble can rehearse together. If some students are coming to rehearsal with wrong notes and rhythms, things which should be hashed out in their practicing at home, then the musical needs that are supposed to be addressed in group rehearsals cannot be appropriately addressed. The sweetness of a cake cannot be adjusted if the baker is using salt instead of sugar. Like the temple blocks, each musician must come to rehearsal with his or her part prepared if quality music is to be produced. When each stone is prepared—when musician is prepared—only then can they be put together and decorated to make a presentable, appealing masterpiece.
This lesson was followed up on Thursday when one of the sixth grade classes repeatedly failed to keep a steady beat. A question came to mind, to which several of the kids thought they had an answer, but they were trying to justify their thinking when no justification was available. When the class failed to keep a steady beat, I turned the metronome on and put it on the overhead speakers; they were able to stay together then. So the question arose: If you can stay together and keep a steady beat by listening, what happens when the beat you are listening to is not steady? If I am asking you to get your steady beat by watching me, and nobody is watching me, how do any of you know that your tempo is the right tempo? The right answer? There's no way to know. The only way is to watch the conductor. But even if one person is watching and everyone is listening to that one person, how do you know that he or she is right? Plus, how are you going to hear that one person over the deafening distractions caused by everyone else playing over that one person? Again, these were rhetorical questions to get the students to realize that the only way to stay together at the right tempo is by watching the director. They are not yet at the level at which they should be listening to each other. At this point, my goal is almost to get them to ignore each other when they play so that they only hear what they are playing individually in relation to the tempo I am showing them. Only when each and every individual has learned to watch and stay with the conductor will they be at the level at which they can properly listen to each other. Only when each one knows his part and knows it in relation to what I dictate is the steady beat can they begin to make their notes and rhythms a musical part of the creative whole.
Now take that same lesson and imagine the band as the Church and the director as Jesus. Jesus Himself said that "the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (John 5:19). If we are all listening to each other to find the footsteps of God, how do we know that we are following the right path? Even if one member of the Church is watching the Father and we listen to him, how do we know that he is pursuing holiness according to Scripture? And how are we to clearly hear him over the distractions of this world and all the false gospels being preached? The answer? We cannot except by keeping our eyes on Christ. And not just one of us or a few of us, but each and every single member of the Body must have his eyes on our heavenly Conductor. And not all of us plays the same part in the divine orchestra. We must each know our part, our role in God's plan for all of Creation, before the Holy Spirit can unite us and refine us into a harmony pleasing to the Lord. Only then, when every individual has his eyes on the Cross, when we are each in a right relationship with God, can we listen to one another and come into the right relation with one another. Only when every block is dressed to the proper specifications can every block be put together as a whole to create the Temple. When the whole is not united to the One, the whole cannot truly be a whole. When the whole is united to the One, only then are we wholly united as one.
It's funny: when God was sharing this revelation with me earlier today, I was starting to get a little annoyed because I was trying to read and couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking about all these cool lessons I was learning through my student teaching and all the lessons I wanted to teach my students. Then this whole message solidified, and I had to stop out of sheer amazement at the way God uses everything to display His glory and His sovereign hand in all things. I am so thankful that He has set me on this path as a music educator, with music and Scripture so finely tuned in perfect harmony for me to hear and see in what is to be my everyday profession. May we all keep our eyes on our heavenly Conductor, and may we all play our parts for His glory alone, that we may be in perfect harmony with one another as a clear reflection of Him.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Priority Devotion
"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left
the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed." ~ Mark
1:35
This verse comes up frequently among people who begin to get bogged down with life and start to drift in their devotion to God. It serves as a reminder that Jesus is our priority, even above our own lives, and it convicts by showing that when Jesus was at His busiest, He was the most immersed in His time with His Father. This has been a recurring theme for me this semester because, despite an apparently lighter course load, I found myself getting more buried under schoolwork than ever. But there is more to this verse that can be found in the context that surrounds it.
To put things into perspective, our text begins in verse 21. Jesus and His disciples had just arrived in Capernaum, and based on verses 30 and 31, I believe verses 21 through 38 all happened within the same 36 hours or so—scholars may have discovered otherwise, and I'm open to being corrected. My reasoning? Simon Peter's mother-in-law was sick, and if Jesus and His disciples had been staying at Simon and Andrew's house, I would think that Jesus would have already healed Peter's mother-in-law. I would not expect them to leave the house in the morning and come back that night to find her with a crippling fever. There would have been early signs. So that night at Simon and Andrew's house, I think, would have been their first night in Capernaum.
So our day begins on the Sabbath with their arrival in Capernaum. Jesus went into the synagogue to teach and was met by a man possessed by an evil spirit, whom Jesus set free. Afterward, they retired to Simon and Andrew's house, where Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law. But that wasn't the end of the night. In verse 32 we see that people were bringing the sick and demon-possessed to Jesus to be healed after dark. There is no telling how late they were up, but the fact that the "whole town gathered at the door" (v. 33) is a good indicator that they were up well into the night.
Now we get to verse 35. So consider this: You get up Sunday morning and go to church. You're a surgeon, and you get a call informing you that you have several unexpected operations lined up for you that afternoon. You go in and operate, then return home, only to receive another call after dinner that an emergency procedure is required of you immediately. You return to work and perform the operation. Word spreads throughout the hospital: 'Good news! The best surgeon in the region is in the building.' Staff and patients alike hear the news, and all of the patients lined up for surgery are rushed to your care. It's late, but you continue to work, knowing that these patients' lives could depend on your self-sacrifice. (Not the most practical analogy, but just go with it.)
Finally, the last operation is done, and you go home. Exhausted, you climb in bed and immediately fall asleep. You sleep for a couple hours, but it feels like only minutes when something stirs and awakens you. Somehow you find yourself wide awake, though you know you've had nowhere near enough sleep, so you climb out of bed and go for a walk to pray. After all, your Sabbath was not much of a holy day of rest. You have company at your house, but they can manage without you until you return—besides, they'll still be asleep for another hour or two. You turn your phone off so you can enjoy some quiet time with the Lord without disturbance, and you walk to a nearby park. You take a seat on a bench in your favorite secluded spot, hidden by trees, and suddenly your mind begins to race with countless prayers for the lost, for the growth of those who have already received salvation, for the needs of the poor and homeless, for provision for the sick who are without necessary healthcare, for the stressed parents and unruly children at your church, for families of deceased patients... Your mind wanders as you pray for every thought that pops into your head. You look around, and the beauty of nature around you makes you praise God for all His wonders. A church bell rings, counting the hours, but you pay no attention to the time. You can't. You're too busy confessing your sins to your heavenly Father and thanking Him for His forgiveness and the gift of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Then you begin to hear voices. You open your eyes and notice that the sun is high overhead as the voices draw closer. You turn your phone back on and find that you have several missed calls from your guests. Rising from your bench, you walk out of the secluded area into the open, where your guests are searching for you high and low. When you are reunited with them, something takes a hold of you and you suggest a road trip. Confused, they agree, and you all hop in the car and drive off to who knows where, not to return home until a few days later.
That was Jesus' day. He began the day arriving in Capernaum from out of town, and immediately went to teach. After returning home, He found not one healing to perform, but many, going late into the night. Before the sun had even risen the next day, He got up and left, feeling hungry for time with His Father. He wandered off without His disciples' knowledge and found a quiet place, isolated from the public. When His disciples awoke, they found Him missing and went searching for Him. He had gone missing not just long enough for His disciples to notice, but long enough for them to look for Him and eventually find Him. And after He had been found, they left right away to continue traveling and preaching the gospel.
Yes, Jesus got up early in the morning and went off to a quiet place to ensure that He had adequate time to devote to His Father (v. 35), but He did so much more than that. He devoted Himself to serving those He cared about (v. 30-31). He devoted Himself to serving those who came to Him looking for help (v. 32-34). He allowed Himself to be interrupted (v. 23-26, 32-34). He devoted Himself to fellowship with His friends (v. 31b). He started His day with meeting with His Father and did not cut His time short until He was needed (v. 35-37). And He remained devoted to His task above and beyond His physical desires (v. 38). Jesus didn't just fit God into a busy schedule. He made sacrifices to ensure that His Father was integrated into His entire schedule, even when things began to pile up all at once without warning.
Here Jesus addresses, by His actions, the Fourth Commandment and His later explanation of the Sabbath in Mark 2:23-28. The Fourth Commandment is often abbreviated to "keep the Sabbath day holy," but there is more to it than that. Exodus 20:9-10 says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." Verse 9 cannot be ignored if we are to indeed enjoy the Sabbath. A day of rest must be balanced with work the remainder of the week. Six days of public service and interaction must be balanced with a day of total devotion to spending time alone with God. When Jesus found that His time with His Father was going to be interrupted that Sabbath, He determined to set aside the following day for the purpose so that His work would not be hindered presently and so that He would not be drained for the following week's work. The Sabbath was made for man's benefit, and the Lord will not contradict His commands. If the Lord determines that work is to be done on a particular Sabbath day, another Sabbath rest will be provided in its place, if man will only seek Him earnestly.
This post is getting to be much longer than I intended, so I'll try to wrap it up. For my Western Civilizations class, I had to read Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, and I was surprised to find an entire two pages directly applicable to this lesson of devotion in the midst of a busy schedule. The author and narrator began to question why one would continue with the meaningless habit of washing oneself every day when the grime of the day's work would return to cover everyone again before the day's end. Steinlauf, a fellow inmate in the labor camp, gave him some insight into the matter: The labor camps are intended to make animals of men, and it is for precisely that reason that they must continue with daily habits of civilized life, that they may cling to civilized life and resist devolving into beasts. Likewise, it is because Satan intends to crowd God out of our schedules that we must increasingly devote ourselves to the Lord in our busiest times. Jesus understood this best, and it is time I began to learn this lesson and apply it to my daily life.
This verse comes up frequently among people who begin to get bogged down with life and start to drift in their devotion to God. It serves as a reminder that Jesus is our priority, even above our own lives, and it convicts by showing that when Jesus was at His busiest, He was the most immersed in His time with His Father. This has been a recurring theme for me this semester because, despite an apparently lighter course load, I found myself getting more buried under schoolwork than ever. But there is more to this verse that can be found in the context that surrounds it.
To put things into perspective, our text begins in verse 21. Jesus and His disciples had just arrived in Capernaum, and based on verses 30 and 31, I believe verses 21 through 38 all happened within the same 36 hours or so—scholars may have discovered otherwise, and I'm open to being corrected. My reasoning? Simon Peter's mother-in-law was sick, and if Jesus and His disciples had been staying at Simon and Andrew's house, I would think that Jesus would have already healed Peter's mother-in-law. I would not expect them to leave the house in the morning and come back that night to find her with a crippling fever. There would have been early signs. So that night at Simon and Andrew's house, I think, would have been their first night in Capernaum.
So our day begins on the Sabbath with their arrival in Capernaum. Jesus went into the synagogue to teach and was met by a man possessed by an evil spirit, whom Jesus set free. Afterward, they retired to Simon and Andrew's house, where Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law. But that wasn't the end of the night. In verse 32 we see that people were bringing the sick and demon-possessed to Jesus to be healed after dark. There is no telling how late they were up, but the fact that the "whole town gathered at the door" (v. 33) is a good indicator that they were up well into the night.
Now we get to verse 35. So consider this: You get up Sunday morning and go to church. You're a surgeon, and you get a call informing you that you have several unexpected operations lined up for you that afternoon. You go in and operate, then return home, only to receive another call after dinner that an emergency procedure is required of you immediately. You return to work and perform the operation. Word spreads throughout the hospital: 'Good news! The best surgeon in the region is in the building.' Staff and patients alike hear the news, and all of the patients lined up for surgery are rushed to your care. It's late, but you continue to work, knowing that these patients' lives could depend on your self-sacrifice. (Not the most practical analogy, but just go with it.)
Finally, the last operation is done, and you go home. Exhausted, you climb in bed and immediately fall asleep. You sleep for a couple hours, but it feels like only minutes when something stirs and awakens you. Somehow you find yourself wide awake, though you know you've had nowhere near enough sleep, so you climb out of bed and go for a walk to pray. After all, your Sabbath was not much of a holy day of rest. You have company at your house, but they can manage without you until you return—besides, they'll still be asleep for another hour or two. You turn your phone off so you can enjoy some quiet time with the Lord without disturbance, and you walk to a nearby park. You take a seat on a bench in your favorite secluded spot, hidden by trees, and suddenly your mind begins to race with countless prayers for the lost, for the growth of those who have already received salvation, for the needs of the poor and homeless, for provision for the sick who are without necessary healthcare, for the stressed parents and unruly children at your church, for families of deceased patients... Your mind wanders as you pray for every thought that pops into your head. You look around, and the beauty of nature around you makes you praise God for all His wonders. A church bell rings, counting the hours, but you pay no attention to the time. You can't. You're too busy confessing your sins to your heavenly Father and thanking Him for His forgiveness and the gift of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Then you begin to hear voices. You open your eyes and notice that the sun is high overhead as the voices draw closer. You turn your phone back on and find that you have several missed calls from your guests. Rising from your bench, you walk out of the secluded area into the open, where your guests are searching for you high and low. When you are reunited with them, something takes a hold of you and you suggest a road trip. Confused, they agree, and you all hop in the car and drive off to who knows where, not to return home until a few days later.
That was Jesus' day. He began the day arriving in Capernaum from out of town, and immediately went to teach. After returning home, He found not one healing to perform, but many, going late into the night. Before the sun had even risen the next day, He got up and left, feeling hungry for time with His Father. He wandered off without His disciples' knowledge and found a quiet place, isolated from the public. When His disciples awoke, they found Him missing and went searching for Him. He had gone missing not just long enough for His disciples to notice, but long enough for them to look for Him and eventually find Him. And after He had been found, they left right away to continue traveling and preaching the gospel.
Yes, Jesus got up early in the morning and went off to a quiet place to ensure that He had adequate time to devote to His Father (v. 35), but He did so much more than that. He devoted Himself to serving those He cared about (v. 30-31). He devoted Himself to serving those who came to Him looking for help (v. 32-34). He allowed Himself to be interrupted (v. 23-26, 32-34). He devoted Himself to fellowship with His friends (v. 31b). He started His day with meeting with His Father and did not cut His time short until He was needed (v. 35-37). And He remained devoted to His task above and beyond His physical desires (v. 38). Jesus didn't just fit God into a busy schedule. He made sacrifices to ensure that His Father was integrated into His entire schedule, even when things began to pile up all at once without warning.
Here Jesus addresses, by His actions, the Fourth Commandment and His later explanation of the Sabbath in Mark 2:23-28. The Fourth Commandment is often abbreviated to "keep the Sabbath day holy," but there is more to it than that. Exodus 20:9-10 says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." Verse 9 cannot be ignored if we are to indeed enjoy the Sabbath. A day of rest must be balanced with work the remainder of the week. Six days of public service and interaction must be balanced with a day of total devotion to spending time alone with God. When Jesus found that His time with His Father was going to be interrupted that Sabbath, He determined to set aside the following day for the purpose so that His work would not be hindered presently and so that He would not be drained for the following week's work. The Sabbath was made for man's benefit, and the Lord will not contradict His commands. If the Lord determines that work is to be done on a particular Sabbath day, another Sabbath rest will be provided in its place, if man will only seek Him earnestly.
This post is getting to be much longer than I intended, so I'll try to wrap it up. For my Western Civilizations class, I had to read Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, and I was surprised to find an entire two pages directly applicable to this lesson of devotion in the midst of a busy schedule. The author and narrator began to question why one would continue with the meaningless habit of washing oneself every day when the grime of the day's work would return to cover everyone again before the day's end. Steinlauf, a fellow inmate in the labor camp, gave him some insight into the matter: The labor camps are intended to make animals of men, and it is for precisely that reason that they must continue with daily habits of civilized life, that they may cling to civilized life and resist devolving into beasts. Likewise, it is because Satan intends to crowd God out of our schedules that we must increasingly devote ourselves to the Lord in our busiest times. Jesus understood this best, and it is time I began to learn this lesson and apply it to my daily life.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
12:10
Romans 12:10 says, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." The ESV says, "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." Last summer this became kind of a theme verse a few of the counselors at Camp Highland. Our only "rule" at camp is that we show honor toward each other and toward camp property. Any time this was not happening, a quick reminder of "12:10" would bring to mind the verse we had been focusing on all week.
This year, Romans 12:10 became kind of an unspoken theme among the counselors, especially the second half of the ESV translation. It became a joke among the summer staff that if we were to ever be in a burning building, we would all burn because we would be so insistent on putting each other before ourselves—we would fight to hold the door for each other and let others go first, and eventually the fire would consume us along with the building. It became almost a game to be the first to finish at meals in order to collect and clean everyone's dishes. Sometimes the game broke out into races to the dish room. One counselor even sabotaged me with honor one night by convincing my campers to let me take the first shower of the night. This was partially in response to his campers from a few weeks earlier, who had been determined to honor their counselor so much that he would be utterly unable to serve them because of how quick they were to serve him in the ways he wanted to serve.
If there was any underlying theme for the whole summer, it would have to be the theme of "[outdoing] one another in showing honor," and also that the greatest challenges bring the greatest rewards (James 1:12). The theme verses of the sessions were John 15 (abiding in Christ), Colossians 3:16 (letting the Word dwell in us richly), James 1:1 (being transformed from skeptic to willing servant through a deep personal relationship with Christ, just as James was after his encounter with the risen Savior), and James 1:27 (being found pure in the sight of God by the blood of Christ, and living in that identity as one who is unstained by sin). These themes also played an important part in my growth this summer leading into this present semester. They seem to me like themes for my own personal devotion to God though. If you were to ask me what I took away from the summer, I would probably bring up the first two themes I originally mentioned. But though I don't immediately think of the session themes, they have been key in bringing me out of the slump I found myself in last year. Going into the summer, I had my fears and insecurities because last year was a strange year for me spiritually. Since my response to the Lord's call in January 2010, Scripture has been my place of refuge and refreshment when it comes to my growth in my walk with Christ. But after spending an entire summer leading elementary and middle schoolers in the basics of TAG time (Time Alone with God), I found myself feeling comfortable with what I already knew of the Bible. Instead, my growth last year focused primarily on prayer. Ironically, as the year came to a close, I felt very uncomfortable about the fact that I had felt comfortable with my Scripture knowledge. So the start of this summer was the start of another turning point, bringing me back into a daily time of reading, in addition to a constant connection in prayer. My fear at the beginning was that, having not consistently been reading for a year, I wouldn't know what to teach my campers or how to lead them this year in comparison to last year. But another key theme of the summer was this truth: I don't have what they [the campers] need. In and of myself, I have nothing of value to offer. God pointed this out to me right away. He had a purpose for keeping me from reading the Bible like I was used to: to humble me and to make me dependent on Him in order to lead the campers into a personal knowledge of Christ. And as soon as the campers arrived, I began to notice that the Lord had blessed me beyond what I could have imagined coming into the summer by calling to mind Scripture references and memory verses I didn't even know I still remembered.
He also blessed me with fantastic co-counselors and an incredible team of fellow staff. Vinnie, who was my co-counselor for four weeks last summer, was my co again for six out of the seven weeks of camp this summer. The way that he modeled the wisdom he shared was a huge inspiration to me because he truly lives out James 1:22, not merely listening to the Word, but also doing it. His is a James 3:17 kind of wisdom. This convicted me at the beginning of the summer to seek to live out wisdom rather than share it verbally. The wisdom that comes from God comes with humility and love, and is the kind of wisdom that is displayed, not spoken. So for the summer, at least toward the beginning when it was fresh in my mind, my task was to live and do what could be done without words, and to speak only the wisdom that had to be spoken and could not be outwardly displayed. How well I actually followed through with that goal, I'm not sure, but I bring up the point now so that I can renew my prayers and efforts for such wisdom.
There's still a lot more I want to share about camp, but I'll leave it there for now. I'll have more about day-to-day life and the wins for Christ I saw this summer next time.
—————
Recap:
I don't have what they need.
"We're going to burn!" Outdoing one another in honor.
Wisdom: Doing what can be shown without words, and saying only what cannot be communicated otherwise.
This year, Romans 12:10 became kind of an unspoken theme among the counselors, especially the second half of the ESV translation. It became a joke among the summer staff that if we were to ever be in a burning building, we would all burn because we would be so insistent on putting each other before ourselves—we would fight to hold the door for each other and let others go first, and eventually the fire would consume us along with the building. It became almost a game to be the first to finish at meals in order to collect and clean everyone's dishes. Sometimes the game broke out into races to the dish room. One counselor even sabotaged me with honor one night by convincing my campers to let me take the first shower of the night. This was partially in response to his campers from a few weeks earlier, who had been determined to honor their counselor so much that he would be utterly unable to serve them because of how quick they were to serve him in the ways he wanted to serve.
If there was any underlying theme for the whole summer, it would have to be the theme of "[outdoing] one another in showing honor," and also that the greatest challenges bring the greatest rewards (James 1:12). The theme verses of the sessions were John 15 (abiding in Christ), Colossians 3:16 (letting the Word dwell in us richly), James 1:1 (being transformed from skeptic to willing servant through a deep personal relationship with Christ, just as James was after his encounter with the risen Savior), and James 1:27 (being found pure in the sight of God by the blood of Christ, and living in that identity as one who is unstained by sin). These themes also played an important part in my growth this summer leading into this present semester. They seem to me like themes for my own personal devotion to God though. If you were to ask me what I took away from the summer, I would probably bring up the first two themes I originally mentioned. But though I don't immediately think of the session themes, they have been key in bringing me out of the slump I found myself in last year. Going into the summer, I had my fears and insecurities because last year was a strange year for me spiritually. Since my response to the Lord's call in January 2010, Scripture has been my place of refuge and refreshment when it comes to my growth in my walk with Christ. But after spending an entire summer leading elementary and middle schoolers in the basics of TAG time (Time Alone with God), I found myself feeling comfortable with what I already knew of the Bible. Instead, my growth last year focused primarily on prayer. Ironically, as the year came to a close, I felt very uncomfortable about the fact that I had felt comfortable with my Scripture knowledge. So the start of this summer was the start of another turning point, bringing me back into a daily time of reading, in addition to a constant connection in prayer. My fear at the beginning was that, having not consistently been reading for a year, I wouldn't know what to teach my campers or how to lead them this year in comparison to last year. But another key theme of the summer was this truth: I don't have what they [the campers] need. In and of myself, I have nothing of value to offer. God pointed this out to me right away. He had a purpose for keeping me from reading the Bible like I was used to: to humble me and to make me dependent on Him in order to lead the campers into a personal knowledge of Christ. And as soon as the campers arrived, I began to notice that the Lord had blessed me beyond what I could have imagined coming into the summer by calling to mind Scripture references and memory verses I didn't even know I still remembered.
He also blessed me with fantastic co-counselors and an incredible team of fellow staff. Vinnie, who was my co-counselor for four weeks last summer, was my co again for six out of the seven weeks of camp this summer. The way that he modeled the wisdom he shared was a huge inspiration to me because he truly lives out James 1:22, not merely listening to the Word, but also doing it. His is a James 3:17 kind of wisdom. This convicted me at the beginning of the summer to seek to live out wisdom rather than share it verbally. The wisdom that comes from God comes with humility and love, and is the kind of wisdom that is displayed, not spoken. So for the summer, at least toward the beginning when it was fresh in my mind, my task was to live and do what could be done without words, and to speak only the wisdom that had to be spoken and could not be outwardly displayed. How well I actually followed through with that goal, I'm not sure, but I bring up the point now so that I can renew my prayers and efforts for such wisdom.
There's still a lot more I want to share about camp, but I'll leave it there for now. I'll have more about day-to-day life and the wins for Christ I saw this summer next time.
—————
Recap:
I don't have what they need.
"We're going to burn!" Outdoing one another in honor.
Wisdom: Doing what can be shown without words, and saying only what cannot be communicated otherwise.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Embrace the Fade
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." ~ Hebrews 11:13-16
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." ~ Philippians 3:20-21
This morning the Lord impressed on me the reality of how temporary this life is and the joy we receive from that realization. I was reading Psalm 103, and the first thing God brought to my attention was verses 2, 5, and 9: the Lord has been good to me, and I must not forget it. He has done much that I can bring to mind in order to remember His faithfulness when I am in distress. And He does not make us suffer constantly. Though He does use trials to refine us and grow us more into His likeness, not all of His blessings come in disguise. And I am grateful for that. I would not be able to stand under the weight of a constant barrage of trials, and I enjoy receiving good things from God in the midst of His discipline. As verse 5 says, He gives us these good things so that we can be refreshed and strengthened for the new work He has prepared for us to do.
That was the main theme I picked up from Psalm 103, but verses 15 and 16 also caught my attention, leading me to the above passages, which took the majority of my focus. The point that came from it was this: We are temporary; rejoice in it! The Spirit's signature statement was, "Embrace the fade," or, "Welcome transition." A lot of times I have a hard time letting go of certain groups or positions within a group, but God stressed to me that I am made to last only in eternity. My position in this life can change at any moment. And that's good in His eyes. It's humbling to know that I have a valuable role to play where I am at any given point in time but that God can work just as well without me when I am gone as He can while I am here. Even when I leave here, wherever here is, I still have a role to play: welcoming whoever is to take my place and leaving without regrets or reservations. I must welcome the transition because it is a necessary step in my journey toward heaven and in the advancement of the Kingdom here on earth.
Sometimes I'll look around and see people, things, or interactions between people and/or things, and it will feel surreal. I get the sense that my perception is that of a shadow, as if this present reality is only a dream from which we will eventually wake up to see true reality. My grandfather's death was one such occasion, when the reality that he was "gone" never really sank in because he's not actually gone for good. Eternity is more real to me in that case than this present reality is (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-18). In fact, this life is the preparation stage for heaven. We are collecting our eternal belongings—our character developed in Christ, the blessings we inherit by sharing blessings with others, our talents and abilities refined for our specifically assigned form of worship, etc.—and packing our bags, with the Spirit as our sturdy Vessel and our Father's side being our destination. We can pack all we want, but unless Christ is our Vessel, all our belongings will fall through and we will not make it safely to the table of our God for the feast He has prepared for us. Only dependence on Christ will ensure our arrival in heaven. We can keep our belongings in our earthly containers and try to force them into our heavenly Vessel, but just as packing individual belongings in a suitcase is easier than packing entire unorganized bags of belongings into a suitcase, so removing our spiritual belongings from their earthly vessels will make it easier to store them in Christ. All of life encompasses this process of packing and unpacking and repacking. And it's a wonderful process, though it can be painful at times. But remember, we are packing our bags after a long vacation on earth so that we can return home to heaven to be with our Father. Thank God this world is only a tent for our temporary dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:1-3); praise Him for the unshakable city He is preparing for us (Hebrews 12:28)! Welcome transition: much better is coming to replace the good we have now. Though God made all of creation, and it is good in His sight, there is much better yet to come as this world fades away (2 Corinthians 5:4-8).
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." ~ James 4:14
Embrace the fade.
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." ~ Philippians 3:20-21
This morning the Lord impressed on me the reality of how temporary this life is and the joy we receive from that realization. I was reading Psalm 103, and the first thing God brought to my attention was verses 2, 5, and 9: the Lord has been good to me, and I must not forget it. He has done much that I can bring to mind in order to remember His faithfulness when I am in distress. And He does not make us suffer constantly. Though He does use trials to refine us and grow us more into His likeness, not all of His blessings come in disguise. And I am grateful for that. I would not be able to stand under the weight of a constant barrage of trials, and I enjoy receiving good things from God in the midst of His discipline. As verse 5 says, He gives us these good things so that we can be refreshed and strengthened for the new work He has prepared for us to do.
That was the main theme I picked up from Psalm 103, but verses 15 and 16 also caught my attention, leading me to the above passages, which took the majority of my focus. The point that came from it was this: We are temporary; rejoice in it! The Spirit's signature statement was, "Embrace the fade," or, "Welcome transition." A lot of times I have a hard time letting go of certain groups or positions within a group, but God stressed to me that I am made to last only in eternity. My position in this life can change at any moment. And that's good in His eyes. It's humbling to know that I have a valuable role to play where I am at any given point in time but that God can work just as well without me when I am gone as He can while I am here. Even when I leave here, wherever here is, I still have a role to play: welcoming whoever is to take my place and leaving without regrets or reservations. I must welcome the transition because it is a necessary step in my journey toward heaven and in the advancement of the Kingdom here on earth.
Sometimes I'll look around and see people, things, or interactions between people and/or things, and it will feel surreal. I get the sense that my perception is that of a shadow, as if this present reality is only a dream from which we will eventually wake up to see true reality. My grandfather's death was one such occasion, when the reality that he was "gone" never really sank in because he's not actually gone for good. Eternity is more real to me in that case than this present reality is (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-18). In fact, this life is the preparation stage for heaven. We are collecting our eternal belongings—our character developed in Christ, the blessings we inherit by sharing blessings with others, our talents and abilities refined for our specifically assigned form of worship, etc.—and packing our bags, with the Spirit as our sturdy Vessel and our Father's side being our destination. We can pack all we want, but unless Christ is our Vessel, all our belongings will fall through and we will not make it safely to the table of our God for the feast He has prepared for us. Only dependence on Christ will ensure our arrival in heaven. We can keep our belongings in our earthly containers and try to force them into our heavenly Vessel, but just as packing individual belongings in a suitcase is easier than packing entire unorganized bags of belongings into a suitcase, so removing our spiritual belongings from their earthly vessels will make it easier to store them in Christ. All of life encompasses this process of packing and unpacking and repacking. And it's a wonderful process, though it can be painful at times. But remember, we are packing our bags after a long vacation on earth so that we can return home to heaven to be with our Father. Thank God this world is only a tent for our temporary dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:1-3); praise Him for the unshakable city He is preparing for us (Hebrews 12:28)! Welcome transition: much better is coming to replace the good we have now. Though God made all of creation, and it is good in His sight, there is much better yet to come as this world fades away (2 Corinthians 5:4-8).
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." ~ James 4:14
Embrace the fade.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Doubting Thomas
The other day at camp, the story of Doubting Thomas came up. As the
discussion went on, my perspective on Thomas began to change. Something
about what he said when the disciples told him that Jesus had risen
from the tomb just didn't seem to match the common interpretation of his
attitude. What if the "doubt" that Thomas was accused of consisted
less of skepticism and more of a sense of caution?
And what about the other account of Thomas, when Jesus headed straight into hostile Judea to raise Lazarus, though the Jews there sought to put Him to death? Could Thomas' comment, “Let us also go, that we may die with him" also be misinterpreted? Maybe the sarcasm we infer from the statement is actually real concern and a carrying out of Peter's later vow to lay down his life for his Savior (John 13:37). Maybe Thomas' mentality in his statement was not, "I can't believe we're walking straight into our death sentence," but rather, "Why would Jesus dare to risk His own death? If He is killed, I will not be able to live with myself without Him. If He is to die now, I will die with Him."
One of the counselors at camp asked another counselor a question, which he then asked me: What does "hope in Christ" mean to you? I think hope in Christ looks like John 20:29. We become so deeply attached to the Lord that any assault on Him or His glory is taken as a personal attack, and to be given any false hope concerning Him would be treachery of the worst sort. We desperately long to hope for His resurrection, but we must be cautious and count all men liars (Psalm 116:11) if they would have us trust in anything other than Christ and His truth spoken directly from His own mouth. And yet, just as Abraham hoped against hope that what God had promised would come to pass (Romans 4:18), we put the fullness of our hope in the promise that the Lord is faithful to keep every promise. So despite the risk of pain if we are to find our hope to be false, our hope in Christ is firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19) because we know that "hope does not disappoint" (Romans 5:5). Whereas Thomas fought the hope that he longed to cling to because of the potential pain it could bring, we eagerly hold firm to our hope because God has proven Himself faithful before, and He will do it again. As Jesus said, blessed are those who love Me so much that they fear disappointment at finding the testimonies about Me to be false, and yet who put their trust in My testimony anyway because they know My character of faithfulness (John 20:29).
In a way, that is what I think of when I think of hope in Christ. But that is also what I think it looks like when we hope for Christ. To hope in Christ can also be to hope for things from the perspective of God's will. Hope in Christ stems from abiding in Christ (John 15:5). When we remain in Him, we begin to see things through His eyes, and thus we begin to hope based on His desires because "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) given by the Spirit. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~ Psalm 37:4
To go even further, when I think of "hope in Christ" I think of Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." When we hope for glory, we hope only for God's glory because there is no other glory worth speaking of. Our hope of glory, then, or our hope to see God glorified, is Christ in us—the character of Christ growing in us, His word dwelling in us richly (Colossians 3:16), being built up into a dwelling place for the Spirit (1 Peter 2:5), Him increasing as I decrease (John 3:30). God receives glory when His Son is seen in us and through us. Thus, to hope in Christ is to trust Him to make us more like Himself, that our heavenly Father may be glorified. And we can be confident that He will do so, because He "must be about [His] Father's business" (Luke 2:49 KJV), and so must we.
So let us joyfully take hold of the hope that Thomas so cautiously repressed, because we know that "great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!" (Psalm 117:2).
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”What if Thomas, of all the disciples, actually loved Jesus more than any other? And what if His crucifixion brought such great pain and sorrow to Thomas, that the grief of the others could not compare? Perhaps that was why Thomas was not with them when Jesus appeared to them the first time: he may have been grieving alone. What if his pain was so great that he would reject any glimmer of hope in fear that that hope would be dashed to pieces? Maybe Thomas desperately wanted to believe that Jesus had risen to life, but unless he saw Him with his own eyes, he would not dare to risk giving himself to a false hope. Only the testimony of the risen Savior Himself would be sufficient to convince Thomas, because any other witness could be flawed. What if his heart echoed the deeply pained caution of Psalm 116:11, deeming any proclamation of resurrection to be a lie until the Resurrected One appeared personally? Then when Jesus finally appeared to Thomas, what if his exclamation, "My Lord and my God!" was not one of disbelief proven wrong, but rather one of a cautiously repressed hope joyously fulfilled?
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ~ (John 20:24-29, ESV)
And what about the other account of Thomas, when Jesus headed straight into hostile Judea to raise Lazarus, though the Jews there sought to put Him to death? Could Thomas' comment, “Let us also go, that we may die with him" also be misinterpreted? Maybe the sarcasm we infer from the statement is actually real concern and a carrying out of Peter's later vow to lay down his life for his Savior (John 13:37). Maybe Thomas' mentality in his statement was not, "I can't believe we're walking straight into our death sentence," but rather, "Why would Jesus dare to risk His own death? If He is killed, I will not be able to live with myself without Him. If He is to die now, I will die with Him."
One of the counselors at camp asked another counselor a question, which he then asked me: What does "hope in Christ" mean to you? I think hope in Christ looks like John 20:29. We become so deeply attached to the Lord that any assault on Him or His glory is taken as a personal attack, and to be given any false hope concerning Him would be treachery of the worst sort. We desperately long to hope for His resurrection, but we must be cautious and count all men liars (Psalm 116:11) if they would have us trust in anything other than Christ and His truth spoken directly from His own mouth. And yet, just as Abraham hoped against hope that what God had promised would come to pass (Romans 4:18), we put the fullness of our hope in the promise that the Lord is faithful to keep every promise. So despite the risk of pain if we are to find our hope to be false, our hope in Christ is firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19) because we know that "hope does not disappoint" (Romans 5:5). Whereas Thomas fought the hope that he longed to cling to because of the potential pain it could bring, we eagerly hold firm to our hope because God has proven Himself faithful before, and He will do it again. As Jesus said, blessed are those who love Me so much that they fear disappointment at finding the testimonies about Me to be false, and yet who put their trust in My testimony anyway because they know My character of faithfulness (John 20:29).
In a way, that is what I think of when I think of hope in Christ. But that is also what I think it looks like when we hope for Christ. To hope in Christ can also be to hope for things from the perspective of God's will. Hope in Christ stems from abiding in Christ (John 15:5). When we remain in Him, we begin to see things through His eyes, and thus we begin to hope based on His desires because "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) given by the Spirit. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~ Psalm 37:4
To go even further, when I think of "hope in Christ" I think of Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." When we hope for glory, we hope only for God's glory because there is no other glory worth speaking of. Our hope of glory, then, or our hope to see God glorified, is Christ in us—the character of Christ growing in us, His word dwelling in us richly (Colossians 3:16), being built up into a dwelling place for the Spirit (1 Peter 2:5), Him increasing as I decrease (John 3:30). God receives glory when His Son is seen in us and through us. Thus, to hope in Christ is to trust Him to make us more like Himself, that our heavenly Father may be glorified. And we can be confident that He will do so, because He "must be about [His] Father's business" (Luke 2:49 KJV), and so must we.
So let us joyfully take hold of the hope that Thomas so cautiously repressed, because we know that "great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!" (Psalm 117:2).
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Thoughts from the "Camp Bubble": Camp Highland Staff Training
Well, today marks our day of rest as Camp Highland staff after two weeks of staff training. It's been intense, deep, challenging, and of course a lot of fun. This summer has a lot of new things in store for the campers who will be coming, and it has been a cool opportunity to take part in making these new things possible. After two weeks, we're finally ready to welcome the kids to camp tomorrow morning. And even after only two weeks, the Lord has done countless wonders and taught innumerable valuable lessons that I'm going to try to remember so I can share them.
As soon as I drove through the front gate, everything felt surreal. It can't really be true that it's been a whole year since last summer. It felt as if it had only been a few weeks. As the staff began to trickle in Monday morning, I started to get more and more excited for training to start and for the campers to get here, as I saw just how many staff we have returning from last year and just how incredible all the new staff are. And to top it off, my friend Johnny from Journey showed up! Journey/Choose to Invest is a group that partners with Camp Highland to send a team of college students on a 6-8-week mission trip in Kenya every summer. Johnny was one of the team members that I connected with, and we kept each other updated on the happenings at camp and in Kenya throughout the summer. This year Johnny is one of the team leaders, so it was awesome to see how God orchestrated everything so that we would both end up camp again this week so that we could reconnect.
For me the biggest thing God has been doing in me has been constantly immersing me in His Spirit. Usually when I think of experiencing God's presence, I think of big emotional experiences that produce spiritual highs. Although I did experience a spiritual high during the first week of training, the Lord has been teaching me to seek Him in other ways, especially when I don't feel Him. The first week involved a lot of huge revelations for all of the staff, as well as a rapid development of openness with each other. Prophetic encouragement led to people realizing their purpose for being here at camp. Testimonies of strengthened faith through hardships, especially a very recent death of a close loved one, shook all of us up and stirred us up to pursue the Lord in greater faith. The "camp bubble" atmosphere of freedom from the darkness and chaos of the outside world has been growing me in making me more comfortable with allowing the Lord to speak through me whenever He wants to, and He has been teaching me to simply open my mouth and let Him speak.
The second week, however, took a different turn. While praying at the end of the first week, thanking God for just how encouraging the first week had been, He quietly warned me that the following week would not be the same as the first. This week would be filled with difficulties and tests of faith and patience. And I'm glad He told me that, because I'm not sure I would have made it through the week in one piece (mentally and spiritually) if I had simply been thrown into it. I tend to be very idealistic, and it's very easy for me to be disappointed when someone I look up to fails to meet my expectations. That happened a few times this week, and I began to become impatient, though it might not have been apparent outwardly. But last night God had to correct me, not for being impatient, but for misunderstanding what true impatience is. (In fact, these last two weeks have involved a lot of redefining of terms, specifically humility and pride.) He reassured me that the "impatience" I was experiencing was actually justified indignation at what displeases Him. He has given me the same righteous anger He has about the things that defy Him. But He also reminded me that vengeance is His to repay. He told me to welcome what I have termed "impatience" because it is a sign of His just character, but to outwardly demonstrate patience and love, and to not foster impatience and anger, lest it grow to become hatred not of sin but of the sinner.
The biggest truth the Lord revealed to me this week came while I was praying one day. My allergies have been plaguing me incessantly, and I think it actually developed into a minor cold/fever after I got a little sunburned, so my morning TAG time (Time Alone with God) for several days was spent going in and out of the bathroom to blow my nose, which kept me from getting very deep into my reading. Instead, my time was spent praying and listening. Finally, I was tired of not being able to read for longer than three minutes at a time, so one night during some down time, I sat down and read some, then returned to praying. While I prayed, I started to complain to God, "Why do I feel so disconnected from You?" He said, "You're not." At first, that was reassuring and gave me a sense of peace. He was telling me that despite my sense of being distant from Him, my feelings were deceiving me, and He was, in fact, near and using all things to grow me. But I took His response as a correction to my question. But after deeper searching later that night, the Lord revealed that His response was actually His answer to my question. I feel disconnected from Him because I am securely connected to Him. At camp, our mission is "to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ through the use of high adventure," which means that, naturally, high ropes courses, climbing walls, and enormous swings are heavily used and always related to a spiritual concept that can be put to practical use. So naturally God related His answer of security to the use of a harness. When climbing a rock wall or walking through a high ropes course, a harness is a necessity for safety. Of course you feel the harness when you first put it on, and you can always tell that it is on securely as you progress through your task, but do you really feel it all the way through the course or all the way up the tower? Is your attention on the harness and the belay rope, or is it on your next handhold or your next step across a rickety rope bridge with loose boards? While you know that your harness is keeping you safe, your attention should be on the task at hand. If your sense of the harness overwhelms your sense of accomplishing a task, then it must be uncomfortable and something must be wrong with the harness. Not very reassuring. A true sense of security is evidenced by a tendency to forget about the harness while performing a task. A more personal analogy that I feel conveys the message more clearly is the way that I cannot feel the infusion site of my insulin pump once it has been inserted correctly. The concept of an infusion site is similar to an IV that you might get at the hospital. Once it's in, yes, you know it's there, but if it has been inserted properly, you should have very little physical sensation of it being there. Any feeling stimulated by the infusion site or IV is evidence that it is uncomfortable, giving reason to adjust it or change it completely. When I go through my day-to-day life, I don't feel my infusion site at all. And that is the proof that it is working well. Likewise, because I didn't feel God as strongly this week, I had reason to believe that God was entrusting me with more of Himself because I no longer need constant emotional experiences to prove to me that God is real. I felt disconnected from God because He is closer to me now than ever before. Needless to say, that was an exciting discovery!
And there's still more! This week the leadership staff from Stone Mountain Park and Wild Adventure came to camp for their staff training, and we got to train and hang out with them while they were here. It was encouraging to hear how they noticed Christ in us as we demonstrated unity and love for one another and for them. Some of them even came to know Christ in a deeper personal way during their time here, which is really exciting! God moved in them here, and I can't wait to hear how He moves through them as they go back to lead their staff by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But along with all of this encouragement also came some conviction. God called my attention again to my diabetes and revealed to me that I have been a victim of spiritual diabetes. While I receive wisdom and insight from the Lord and continue to seek more from Him, and while I share what He teaches me, very little of what He teaches me comes across in practical application in my everyday life. I ingest spiritual carbohydrates, but I am lacking in spiritual insulin to make my spiritual food useful for action. I want to see this change. Lord, replace my spiritual pancreas with Your Spirit, Your spring of Living Water.
There's still much more that God has been doing, but this is the last thing I'm going to share for now, until next time, because I'm running out of time, and I've already given you enough to read for now. The unity and support our staff have demonstrated in our support for each other has been a huge encouragement to me. A few of us spent one night sharpening each other as iron sharpens iron in a heated debate. All sides of the discussion were passionate about their stance and were fully convinced of the Lord's will in that area, and it was cool to see how the Spirit spoke truth into the situation through so many wise individuals, growing us all to have a united cause: to make the name of Jesus glorified abundantly. Another night was spent being vulnerable in confession and encouraging a brother that God is not finished with His work in him yet. Just hearing his story makes me excited about the ministry opportunity he has, to share the gospel with a unique group of people and to be a like a living stone (1 Peter 2:5), evidence of God's sovereignty and His ability to make good out of the worst of circumstances.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying and supporting me as I prepare to work at camp this summer! I can't fully express how much it means to me that you would set aside part of your day to keep me and our staff in your prayers, and I pray that you would be encouraged to know that God is working because of you. We are fighting for the hearts and souls of the kids who will be coming here, and your prayers strengthen us for the Lord's purposes. Campers arrive tomorrow! To arms, prayer warriors! God bless!
As soon as I drove through the front gate, everything felt surreal. It can't really be true that it's been a whole year since last summer. It felt as if it had only been a few weeks. As the staff began to trickle in Monday morning, I started to get more and more excited for training to start and for the campers to get here, as I saw just how many staff we have returning from last year and just how incredible all the new staff are. And to top it off, my friend Johnny from Journey showed up! Journey/Choose to Invest is a group that partners with Camp Highland to send a team of college students on a 6-8-week mission trip in Kenya every summer. Johnny was one of the team members that I connected with, and we kept each other updated on the happenings at camp and in Kenya throughout the summer. This year Johnny is one of the team leaders, so it was awesome to see how God orchestrated everything so that we would both end up camp again this week so that we could reconnect.
For me the biggest thing God has been doing in me has been constantly immersing me in His Spirit. Usually when I think of experiencing God's presence, I think of big emotional experiences that produce spiritual highs. Although I did experience a spiritual high during the first week of training, the Lord has been teaching me to seek Him in other ways, especially when I don't feel Him. The first week involved a lot of huge revelations for all of the staff, as well as a rapid development of openness with each other. Prophetic encouragement led to people realizing their purpose for being here at camp. Testimonies of strengthened faith through hardships, especially a very recent death of a close loved one, shook all of us up and stirred us up to pursue the Lord in greater faith. The "camp bubble" atmosphere of freedom from the darkness and chaos of the outside world has been growing me in making me more comfortable with allowing the Lord to speak through me whenever He wants to, and He has been teaching me to simply open my mouth and let Him speak.
The second week, however, took a different turn. While praying at the end of the first week, thanking God for just how encouraging the first week had been, He quietly warned me that the following week would not be the same as the first. This week would be filled with difficulties and tests of faith and patience. And I'm glad He told me that, because I'm not sure I would have made it through the week in one piece (mentally and spiritually) if I had simply been thrown into it. I tend to be very idealistic, and it's very easy for me to be disappointed when someone I look up to fails to meet my expectations. That happened a few times this week, and I began to become impatient, though it might not have been apparent outwardly. But last night God had to correct me, not for being impatient, but for misunderstanding what true impatience is. (In fact, these last two weeks have involved a lot of redefining of terms, specifically humility and pride.) He reassured me that the "impatience" I was experiencing was actually justified indignation at what displeases Him. He has given me the same righteous anger He has about the things that defy Him. But He also reminded me that vengeance is His to repay. He told me to welcome what I have termed "impatience" because it is a sign of His just character, but to outwardly demonstrate patience and love, and to not foster impatience and anger, lest it grow to become hatred not of sin but of the sinner.
The biggest truth the Lord revealed to me this week came while I was praying one day. My allergies have been plaguing me incessantly, and I think it actually developed into a minor cold/fever after I got a little sunburned, so my morning TAG time (Time Alone with God) for several days was spent going in and out of the bathroom to blow my nose, which kept me from getting very deep into my reading. Instead, my time was spent praying and listening. Finally, I was tired of not being able to read for longer than three minutes at a time, so one night during some down time, I sat down and read some, then returned to praying. While I prayed, I started to complain to God, "Why do I feel so disconnected from You?" He said, "You're not." At first, that was reassuring and gave me a sense of peace. He was telling me that despite my sense of being distant from Him, my feelings were deceiving me, and He was, in fact, near and using all things to grow me. But I took His response as a correction to my question. But after deeper searching later that night, the Lord revealed that His response was actually His answer to my question. I feel disconnected from Him because I am securely connected to Him. At camp, our mission is "to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ through the use of high adventure," which means that, naturally, high ropes courses, climbing walls, and enormous swings are heavily used and always related to a spiritual concept that can be put to practical use. So naturally God related His answer of security to the use of a harness. When climbing a rock wall or walking through a high ropes course, a harness is a necessity for safety. Of course you feel the harness when you first put it on, and you can always tell that it is on securely as you progress through your task, but do you really feel it all the way through the course or all the way up the tower? Is your attention on the harness and the belay rope, or is it on your next handhold or your next step across a rickety rope bridge with loose boards? While you know that your harness is keeping you safe, your attention should be on the task at hand. If your sense of the harness overwhelms your sense of accomplishing a task, then it must be uncomfortable and something must be wrong with the harness. Not very reassuring. A true sense of security is evidenced by a tendency to forget about the harness while performing a task. A more personal analogy that I feel conveys the message more clearly is the way that I cannot feel the infusion site of my insulin pump once it has been inserted correctly. The concept of an infusion site is similar to an IV that you might get at the hospital. Once it's in, yes, you know it's there, but if it has been inserted properly, you should have very little physical sensation of it being there. Any feeling stimulated by the infusion site or IV is evidence that it is uncomfortable, giving reason to adjust it or change it completely. When I go through my day-to-day life, I don't feel my infusion site at all. And that is the proof that it is working well. Likewise, because I didn't feel God as strongly this week, I had reason to believe that God was entrusting me with more of Himself because I no longer need constant emotional experiences to prove to me that God is real. I felt disconnected from God because He is closer to me now than ever before. Needless to say, that was an exciting discovery!
And there's still more! This week the leadership staff from Stone Mountain Park and Wild Adventure came to camp for their staff training, and we got to train and hang out with them while they were here. It was encouraging to hear how they noticed Christ in us as we demonstrated unity and love for one another and for them. Some of them even came to know Christ in a deeper personal way during their time here, which is really exciting! God moved in them here, and I can't wait to hear how He moves through them as they go back to lead their staff by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But along with all of this encouragement also came some conviction. God called my attention again to my diabetes and revealed to me that I have been a victim of spiritual diabetes. While I receive wisdom and insight from the Lord and continue to seek more from Him, and while I share what He teaches me, very little of what He teaches me comes across in practical application in my everyday life. I ingest spiritual carbohydrates, but I am lacking in spiritual insulin to make my spiritual food useful for action. I want to see this change. Lord, replace my spiritual pancreas with Your Spirit, Your spring of Living Water.
There's still much more that God has been doing, but this is the last thing I'm going to share for now, until next time, because I'm running out of time, and I've already given you enough to read for now. The unity and support our staff have demonstrated in our support for each other has been a huge encouragement to me. A few of us spent one night sharpening each other as iron sharpens iron in a heated debate. All sides of the discussion were passionate about their stance and were fully convinced of the Lord's will in that area, and it was cool to see how the Spirit spoke truth into the situation through so many wise individuals, growing us all to have a united cause: to make the name of Jesus glorified abundantly. Another night was spent being vulnerable in confession and encouraging a brother that God is not finished with His work in him yet. Just hearing his story makes me excited about the ministry opportunity he has, to share the gospel with a unique group of people and to be a like a living stone (1 Peter 2:5), evidence of God's sovereignty and His ability to make good out of the worst of circumstances.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying and supporting me as I prepare to work at camp this summer! I can't fully express how much it means to me that you would set aside part of your day to keep me and our staff in your prayers, and I pray that you would be encouraged to know that God is working because of you. We are fighting for the hearts and souls of the kids who will be coming here, and your prayers strengthen us for the Lord's purposes. Campers arrive tomorrow! To arms, prayer warriors! God bless!
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