Church camp is over. and, you know what? Satan's attacking me. I just wrote out this long post.....and it wasn't the best post in the world, but *somehow* the computer ate it. Or something. It's gone. But, that's okay.
Instead of re-writing the post I wrote before, I'm going to do this backwards, and start at the end of my old post.
God changed me last week. I'm a different person than the one who went to church camp last Monday. Completely.
Last week I left for church camp. Excited, yes. Pumped, yes. Ready? Maybe. I was ready to spend a week wtih my friends, hanging out. I was ready for wild-n-crazy rec. I was ready to sing my heart out. I was ready...or I thought I was.
Monday night's service was incredible. Keahbone had a great message. The worship was incredible. But, I realized that I had come for the wrong reasons. I had taken coming as a matter of course hang out time. Oh sure, I wanted to go to the services too. But, I wasn't there to hear from God. I was there to win a spirit stick. And He broke me. I hadn't cried that hard for....months. Another thing I was struggling with that night was forgiving myself of this one thing. I had asked God to forgive me, and He did. But, I held on to it. I felt guilty. Finally God told me that when He forgave me, it was gone. I didn't have to regret what I had done anymore. See, I had let this turn me bitter. I couldn't look at this person without hating myself. I could barely talk to him. It was awful. When I let go...there's no words to express the peace that absolutely filled my heart.
Tuesday morning we had a time of prayer with our sister church, Gentry. We divided it up by birthdays, so my group was me, Mykka, Aaron, Josh, Caleb M, Josh K, Bryson, and Trae. And Gentry people, but I never learned their names very well. Anyways, we talked for a while about what God did in our lives, introduced ourselves (in that order), and then had prayer. That was the first time I had said anything about it, but when we were talking about our Mondays, I mentioned about coming for the wrong reasons and such....I think that the best way to put this is this...I didn't want to make an impression. I just shared how God had changed my perspective, and that wasn't why I was here anymore. It's just....I don't know. It's cool when you can do that with a group from your youth group. I mean, these people are like an extension of my family. It was just a sweet time together.
That's just the first service, and a small group thingy. Take that, multiply it times ten, and that's how the week went. It was amazing. And I'm different because of it. I'm ready to stand.
More about church camp to come.... |
