Last week I went to one of my favorite places, King Solomon Christian Camp. If you ever need to go to a place to get away from the world, to meet amazing people, and be surrounded by people who love you as much as they love God, then this is the place to go. I've been attending every camp every summer since going into seventh grade (except last year, because I'm lame and didn't go). Every year I learn something that I didn't know about God, myself, and other people.
This year I had the pleasure of being a graduate (so one of the oldest campers at the camp) and didn't feel the need to worry about what other people thought of me, which I find myself habitually doing. The camp teams and the staff this year were so amazing and friendly. All of the other campers were also super nice. I sometimes struggle with meeting new people because I'm really bad at conversing, but everyone there was so easy to get along with. Since I was distraction free, I got the opportunity to focus on learning about scripture. I grew up in a Christian home and always did what I was told. I knew the basics of children's bible stories and stuff from sermons at church. But I've never really delved into the Bible and actually tried to understand what it says.
This last week we learned that God has a plan for everyone. I grew up with people constantly telling me that, but what does it really mean? It means that He gave me talents and characteristics that I'm supposed to for His glory. It means that He knows what my future consists of. No matter how much I try to plan my own future, or want to do my own thing, His plans are always bigger, better, and more important than mine. As humans, we naturally want things that are bigger and better. We especially want bigger and better of things that we value.
We also talked a lot about opportunity. We talked about how God will constantly give us opportunities to live like Him, it's just a matter of whether we are willing to take those opportunities or not. We are all pawns in the game of life and God is the chess master. I listened to a guy speak this week about the parables in the Bible. He talked about how Jesus used parables to help people understand something that new and foreign to people. Parables are stories or ideas that aren't necessarily true, but are used to prove a point. So how is this relevant in terms of talking to people about Christ who know nothing about Christ? This guy told us to think of telling someone about Christ by comparing Christians to a pencil. He told us to think of ways that parables could be used for this comparison.
Here's what I came up with:
-The pencil has no control over where it goes. The hand is what guides it.
-If the pencil isn't sharp, it's basically useless.
-Even if the pencil is broken, it can still be useful.
-It can be used to do great things, but isn't the one who gets the credit.
And last, but not least, my ultimate favorite one:
-If you make a mistake, it can be erased.
This last one is the beauty of God. Obviously we mess up, I mess us every single day. But in Matthew it tells us that we have to forgive others, forgive them over and over, and then we can accept God's forgiveness. We don't deserve to be forgiven, but that's just how much He loves us. In return for His love, He only asks us to be like Him because we are made in His image. He promised us (with scripture from Jeremiah and Matthew to prove it) that He is who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do. He tells us that every person has a purpose. We all have specific talents that have been given to us. He says in Jeremiah that when we seek Him, we will find Him. The best part, though, is in Matthew 28:20. This verse says that God will never leave us. For me, I've always relied on myself to get things done. I've always believed in God, because that is what I was raised to believe, but I've really only relied on myself to plan out my future. I took a step back this last week and really thought about what it means to believe in God. I realized that sometimes I just need to give up my worries and seek His help.
I've been reading a lot of scripture about love lately. My favorite thing that the Bible mentions are what Jesus calls the two greatest commandments; love God and love your neighbor. If we don't love other people, who are made in the image of God, then how can we say that we love God? The verse 1 John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, 'I love God' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." This verse really reminds me what faith actually is. It's believing in something that can't be seen. People can tell me that believing in something that isn't seen is stupid, but that is the point of having faith. This verse also calls to love people. Love your neighbor, love your brother, love the smelly kid at the next lunch table over. Love is what holds people together, love is what creates bonds, and love is what gets us through life.
Something that my youth minister asked before we ended the week was, 'what changes now?'. For me, I realized that I'm not in control of my life. I need to stop worrying about what will happen five, ten, even fifty years from now. I have to start focusing on how I can use my talents and seize the opportunities that God provides me to bring Him glory. My ultimate goal is to live and love like Christ. I will probably (undoubtedly) make mistakes along the way, but as it says in 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all." In the end, anything that I have to go through to bring glory to God will totally be worth it.
The last thing I will say about this is that I have a favorite verse that I would like to share with you. In 1 John 3:18, John says, "Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions." I get really irritated and frustrated easily. Sometimes I get grumpy and don't want to love someone. God calls us to love everyone, no matter what. This is something that I need to start living by, because I think the world could use a little more love. The bottom line is we need to love God, love people, take up our cross daily and follow him, and use our talents to bring Him glory. In return, God promises that He will love us and that He will never leave us.
