Although I've been posting bits and pieces of information about my time at Camp thus far, it hasn't really been personal, except for the extreme thankfulness that I feel in regard to people's prayers for our camps.
It's been exhausting, to be honest. It feels like going through diplomas, except a tad different, because you're dealing with children instead of black and white printed pieces of paper. You can't really prepare, but you still suffer from sleep deprivation.
To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect as this is my first year as a Sr. Counselor (no more moving between cabins every week. Boo yah!) And last year, I only Jr. Counseled for two weeks.
God's been teaching me so much about himself and myself, however, that I can't help but be overwhelmed with thankfulness and joy.
First of all, my dad, J and I drove up here on a Sunday, and on our way up here, we listened to a sermon by John Piper, in his Desiring God series. I'll see if I can find it later, but it had to do with the passage in John 14, where it talks about "if you love me, you will obey what I command."
If you're anything like me, you like step by step instructions on how to live your life, and this sounds like a wonderful thing. Look for God's commands, follow them, and then you're loving Him. Great, huh?
Nope.
It's been a week since I listened to the sermon, but the basis of it revolved around the fact that the commands that Jesus was talking about, were the non-specific ones, such as "follow me", "abide in me" and many others that can be found in John.
The thing is, those come after loving Jesus. Not before. They come as a result, not as a prelude.
Loving Jesus isn't following His commands, as radical as that sounds. I'm sorry if this makes no sense, but hopefully I'll be able to link to the sermon once I can get back to reliable internet. Loving Jesus is desiring, wanting, craving Him. And once we are doing that, we automatically begin fulfilling His commands. Because we find him lovely to be with, we're fulfilling the "abide in me" command. There are many more examples, but they aren't coming to mind.
Through everything that's happened so far, God's been impressing into me the importance of love. Of His love. Of my love for others. And most importantly, how the whole Gospel revolves around love. I need to make sure that they understand His love most of all, both through my actions and my words. That the kids grasp the fact that it is because He loved them so much that we have the chance to be saved.
How amazing is that? How utterly incomprehensible that the God of the universe finds us so desirable that He would kill His only Son to make us forever His?
It's as if He's making John 3:16 come alive to me.
Suffice it to say, I'm learning about love. A lot about love. And it's amazing stuff.
But He also overwhelms with His provision and timing. Long story short, I brought a music dock to Camp to play music from and to use as an alarm clock. When I got here, it wouldn't work. Now, it's never not (double negatives, I'm sorry) worked for me before, and I tried everything from changing batteries to unplugging and plugging it back in numerous times. Something was wrong with it.
And I was frustrated. The amazing thing is that I had brought my computer. I hadn't been sure whether or not I should bring it, but it's come in handy numerous times for both me and others. So I was glad that I could still play music off of it (really comes in handy when you depend on turning on Kenny G {sax music} to put your campers to sleep).
This morning, I was preparing for the next set of campers that are coming tonight, and I tried to get it working again. I had vented my frustration to God, I had prayed over it, I had tried so hard.
I unplugged it, walked with it to another cabin to see if maybe they could help me fix it. I get there, explain the problem, take out the batteries, and then notice that it's actually stopped working, which means that it is working (explanation: every time I would take the batteries out before {even when it was unplugged}, it would still keep on blinking... not sure what was going on there).
I was so unbelievably happy as I set it to the correct time and date. I don't know why He caused it to work so late, but I'm so glad that it is working, and I'm overwhelmed by His timing. He is SO good.
My summer is only starting, but already, I've gotten a sunburn, kissed a puppet, and learned a lot about God. I hope your summer is shaping up to equally excellent! :)
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