Last summer I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to
experience Lake Ann Camp in a way I had never seen it before. I was chosen the
summer before to be a part of their Reborne Rangers program, a program that
encourages high school students to step out of their comfort zones and hone in
on their leadership skills. That week at camp changed my life, and I will never
forget it. But there was one night that I will always specifically remember.
Tuesday night we sat in the Welcome Center as a group
waiting for our next session to start. The lead singer of the Cedarville’s
worship band, Heartsong came in and our counselor JB asked him to play a couple
of songs. He was more than willing, and that night I saw some of the most
beautiful worship and prayer I had ever seen in my entire life.
Before then I was not living in a way God would have wanted
me to live. Sometimes I forget how important it is to stay connected to the
body of Christ. That night God showed me that there are people who want to
support me, love me, and fight along side me in my life. He showed me that if I
need it, He will send people to pray, laugh, cry, and live with me. It is
because of that night and those people that I see God the way I do now. And I
will never forget it.
I have been reflecting on that week of camp a lot lately,
and if I could go back and re-live it I would in a heart beat. It was full of
stories and life changing times that God used to mold me into the person I am
right now. One week in comparison to my entire life is not a very long time,
but God uses small things to do big things.
Another personal example of God using small things to do big
things in my life is a simple conversation I had recently. I went to one of my
teachers for help with schoolwork, and before I even realized it I ended up
telling her a little bit of my testimony. She asked me why I didn’t end up in
the same type of lifestyle as some of the people around me, and I said it was
because I found Jesus. When I said that, we just kind of looked at each other
and smiled. She’s a believer as well, and that conversation was one I think
both of us were kind of waiting to happen all year to make sure our assumptions
were right in the things we thought about each other. I was getting ready to
walk out of class, and she looked at me and said, “How are you and Jesus doing
now?” She’s my teacher, she sees me every day and the way I interact with
people on a regular basis, and she knows me pretty well for a teacher, so she could tell something was up. It’s not
that difficult to tell when someone you know pretty well is not as good
spiritually or emotionally as they usually are. I responded, “Alright, it gets
kinda hard sometimes but we always end up working through it.” I said something
about salvation that I can’t quite remember, and she said, “Just remember, once
you have it, it’s something you can never lose.”
That comment stuck with me. It rolled around in my head for
days. When I get stuck in a rut spiritually I tend to blame it on God and think
He’s moving further away from me as time goes on. That simple statement was a
seed that sprouted into a tree in my head and it brought me back to reality. I
was living my life like my salvation was slipping away slowly but surely, but
that made me realize, if anything, I was slipping away, not God.
To me, one of the most beautiful things about God is that He
uses small things to bring our attention to bigger things. There was one week
out of my entire life that changed my walk with Christ 100%, and one
conversation from a person I will probably rarely, if ever, talk to again after
high school. Without those two circumstances, who knows where my life would be
now? I fully believe in the fact that God will bring His children back to
Himself with whatever it takes, but I’m glad the little things are all it took
for me.
I love little things. Simple things are what the Gospel is
essentially based off of. I think the church turns it into some deep
theological concept that no one can easily wrap their minds around, but the
bottom line is that God loves you.
God loves you.
It doesn’t get much simpler than that, and that’s the key to
understanding life I think. To know and believe with all your heart, mind, soul
and strength that God loves you, and to love Him the same way, and it seems
easy but you’ll find that it isn’t always a walk in the park. Just know that
when you need it most, God will bring along someone or something to show you
that He is still there.
So don’t forget the simple truths, and don’t overlook details,
because sometimes those are the only things we need in life.
