Striving to Stay on the Straight and Narrow...

As I was coming back to church to camp I was caught with a thought that really made me surprised in a way. I was talking about it for parts of the summer and then I realized that this moment was finally here: this is the last week of Camp Oytokwah Summer Camp 2012. WOW!!!! I could not begin to word what was going through my head but my main reaction was silence (with my eyes wide open). I am currently on my 11th week of summer camp programming at camp and it truly has been a long and persevering summer. Vineyard Church, which is out of Columbus, OH, is the last guest group of the summer that the summer staff will work with. Once this week is complete the staff will begin leaving camp for their own lives for the rest of the year. Where the staff will be in the long term no one goes, but as of now most of everyone will be going back and getting ready for school. Where will I be though... well after camp is over I will be preparing for my trip toward Kentucky to be with the Journey Fellowship of Students for our final retreat. Once that is complete I will be coming back home to prepare for my last semester of school (which has truly felt like a long time coming). I am sitting in the back counter of the gift shop, since this is where the best coverage of wireless is at, pondering at what truly is ahead and looking back at a hard-working and demanding summer both physically and spiritually.

There are some things that took place at camp that I never thought would have been possible. I came to camp this summer not knowing anything about archery, high rope setup, etc. and for the most part this summer I have been working at the rock wall and high ropes systems as well as teaching kids how to shoot a bow and arrow onto a target. The activities that took place this summer were in areas I had no previous experience in, but at the same time I do believe this is what Christ wanted me to see and experience these last few months. A famous phrase in the Gospels is ANYTHING IMPOSSIBLE WITH MAN IS POSSIBLE WITH GOD. What a phrase that Jesus uses Himself to talk to His disciples, by saying that to get live righteous in God's eyes that this is impossible, but through Jesus Christ Himself all things can and will be possible. I look on the summer that had taken place, along with the new week ahead, and look at Christ Himself in all of the picture. There are times where I was angry, lost, stumbling, tempted, etc. and it helps me realize that I just need Christ more.

So, looking ahead, I see the last week of camp and the sunset even brighter than before. This feeling is bittersweet... knowing that the end is near for the summer of 2012 (as well as the end of my last summer break period). God has been able to do far more remarkable things than I could begin to talk about, teach on, or minister to people on. God is bigger than all of these things and is bigger than our own imaginations. Christ made our minds, as small as they truly are in the grand scheme of things, and made them to think, intellect with others, prosper, etc. To fathom the mind of Christ would be to go to a beach and start counting the number of grains of sand that are laying around. This would:

1. Be pointless, because there is always new grains of sand that arrive out of the waves in the ocean.
2. Be long, this would not take a day or even a year, this would take more like a lifetime
3. Be stressful, come on... we as people have trouble in everyday life with mere tasks, how much bigger would this be.

I leave you all with this... continue to view Christ not as a distant God that truly does not care but as someone that truly is right next to us and truly wants the best of us, just like a real and true father. Be blessed everyone, and may we all continue to find more of Christ.