Songs always seem to speak to me. Ya know, the whole face plant thing? Well.. It's because song's always seem to speak to me.. and whaddaya know? It happened again.
The song "Forever Reign"- by Hillsong has a chorus (as most pop songs do) and the lyrics go like this:
Oh!
I'm running to Your arms
I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world Forever Reign
Yeah... that song has become my favorite as of right now. Which is saying something, because I generally can't pick a favorite song. But it is, because that line I have highlighted in red has been the biggest lesson of my summer.
This summer I had the opportunity to move up from a counselor at Camp to the role of Assistant Director for two of the weeks. It was an exciting transition, but let me tell ya, it was the scariest transition of my life. Suddenly having to be in charge of decisions made at camp? Suddenly having to give a talk in front of 30+ 2nd-5th graders (depending on the week)? Woah buddy. Scary stuff.
But God doesn't give me more than I can handle, and He always stretches me to become something better through Him.
Being a director gave me the ability to really watch other counselors and see how they interacted with the kids. It was amazing to see counselors play crazy games during free time, step up and lead during group time, and even go out of their comfort zone in many situations. The love that was poured out into these kids was astounding and abundant- and it brought me a lot of joy.
However, there were times when I struggled a lot determining whether the counselors loved the kids as much as I wanted them to. Why did the counselors group together and not spread themselves out amongst the kids at times? Why did the counselors sometimes tell a kid no when all the kid wanted to do was play an easy, sit-down game? It didn't make sense to me, and at times I thought that the counselors were there for the wrong reason, and none of them were meeting the "ideal counselor" image I had in my mind.
Suddenly, that song came into my life. "The riches of YOUR love will always be enough." It hit me.. it isn't our love that matters for these kids' lives, it's JESUS' love! And His love will ALWAYS be enough- always abundant, always sufficient, always there. And Jesus love pours out amongst our counselors in all ways, all shapes, all sizes. It was after much prayer and thought about this song that I realized it wasn't what us directors had in mind for the "Best counselor", but what Jesus called as the best counselor. God has a purposed for all of the counselors at camp, and it isn't my job to Judge them based on how I would've handled situations. All the kids love the counselors, and ultimately see Jesus in them. Isn't that the goal?
God didn't put together the group of counselors that Brice saw fit as good, but put together a group of counselors that HE saw fit as perfect for what HIS plan was.
And isn't that awesome? God really has taught me a lot this summer, but this lesson has really settled on my heart. REAL love isn't determined by one outlook, but is only seen through the Love of Jesus. I am so thankful for being moved to a director position this year, and can't wait to see what new lessons God teaches me as I take on this exciting role.
And so it goes...
