So what does the above verse mean? We are all under construction. None of us are perfect, and we will never be perfect. God is constantly working in us, around us, and through us.
This summer I was blessed to once again spend 3 weeks at Lakeside. If you know anything about Lakeside, you know that it is a very peaceful community. Once you enter through the gate you can feel the presence of God. Just because you are at Lakeside does not mean that satan is not going to try and attack you. That is the complete opposite. The closer you are to Christ, the harder satan is going to try and attack you. Let me just say that satan was attacking me the entire time I was at camp.
During the first week I struggled to know where my place was. I haven't been a camper in 5 years and this was my first year as a senior counselor. After attending camp for 12 years, I finally got to be a senior counselor! One thing that I learned was that I do not like the fact that I am getting older. I wish I could stay young forever. I also do not like change. I will avoid it at all costs.
The first week of camp I was busy 90% of the time. The 10% that I was not busy, I was exhausted. I was exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually. Because I was constantly on the go I had a hard time hearing from God. There were times when I was angry at God because the kids in my youth group and my friends were having these awesome God moments and I couldn't even "hear" from God. Before coming to camp I honestly thought things were going pretty well in my life. I was a generally happy person, and I tried to spend time with God on the daily. During camp though, God continued to point out many areas of my life that were just mediocre, things that I could improve on to better my relationship with God. I remember falling asleep one night in my room just crying out to God. The phrase that came to my mind repeatedly was "pruning is painful but it is often necessary!" If we want to grow in our relationship and walk with Christ, then we have to get rid of the things in our lives that are holding us back from getting closer to Christ.
During the first 2 weeks of camp our chaplain told us that the Bible is more than just a road map that we should be using to navigate through life. The Bible is a love letter from Father. I loved how Bobby kept referring to God as Father. For those of us that grew up without a loving father, that can be a hard concept to understand, but God is the ultimate Father, and He's a Father to the fatherless. We learned that sometimes we play "peek-a-boo" with God. We don't want Him to see everything that we have done, but of course He knows everything we say and sees everything we do. The enemy wants us to doubt God's goodness. When we hide from God, we begin to push people away.
What does it mean to live in grace? "Grace space" is the ability to say to someone else "I got you". As human beings we hurt each other, but Jesus never hurts us. Grace is filling in the gap when I cannot do it! Grace is Jesus. Grace does not make people sin, but it's important that we extend grace to others. This is an area of my life that God pointed out that I need to work on. I realize that no one is perfect, but sometimes I have a hard time forgiving others. Never ponder in private what people tell you in public.
For Junior High Lakeside we have a great group of CIT's who for the past 10 months leading up to camp have put many hours into planning junior high lakeside. Over the past 2 years we've all gotten pretty close, so close that we consider each other more than just friends, we consider each other family. The first day of camp satan was really attacking us! He knew how much we all love God, love working with each other,and junior high lakeside in general. After much prayer and a late night trip to wal-mart, things were running much smoother the next morning.I am beyond blessed to have been able to work with such an awesome group of people last week. Things have definitely changed since last year for all of us. None of us are in the same place that we were in once we left camp last year. Things are a lot different but I love you guys so much and no matter where life takes each one of us, we will always be friends. God brought each of you into my life at just the right time. Let's continue to lift each other up in prayer as we all know that life is a journey full of ups and downs. When things get tough this year lets first remember to lean on God, but lets also remember that we are a family, so lets lean on one another to make it through the hard times.
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