Apology

Camp!

This past week I was away for a week of camp. I went down to Little Grassy Camp - which is near Carbondale. I was the preacher for the week and got to speak to jr. and sr. high kids about God.

It was an amazing week. We had wonderful weather, the camp site was awesome, and the kids totally rocked.

I was pretty excited to go back to camp because Little Grassy held some significance for my life. See, I went to Little Grassy as a kid. I started going there when I was 9 and continued until I was in jr. high. I remember so many things from camp - meeting new people, having cool counselors to hang out with, buying fun things at the concession stand, swimming in the lake...the list goes on and on.

My best memory of camp, though, was from when I was 9 years old. We were sitting in the dining hall for worship because it was raining outside. And the guy preaching was an army chaplain by the name of John. He spoke a message and at the end invited anyone to come up who wanted to pray to accept Jesus into their heart.

My friend Melissa, who I had come to camp with, and I looked at each other and we both said "will you go forward with me?" It was at the moment, praying with Chaplain John, that I invited Jesus into my heart for the first time.

Every time I step foot onto Little Grassy's camp grounds, something comes over me. I was told once that God lived there in the summer. I think that must be true. It is obviously holy ground. Who knows how many people have come to know Christ there throughout the years. This year 3 people invited Christ into their hearts for the first time. I guess it's just something about that place.

Hopefully you can join me next year. God will still be moving there.

Out of Gas

This week a bunch of church members went to go see the Gateway Grizzlies game together. We had a fantastic time. I mean there were $1 hotdogs! What could be better? The weather was gorgeous, and the Grizzlies won. It was a perfect night.

As we were driving home in the big white bus, we heard a big backfire. Then another. Thankfully, we had just pulled off the interstate and were on a more rural road. I immediately stood up to see what was going on.

Our bus driver exclaimed, “we are out of gas. I guess I forgot to look at the gas gage.” What followed was an hour of sitting on the side of the road, waiting to be rescued with some gas.

I thought this was a perfect metaphor for life. We are cruisin’ along, having a wonderful time, and then BAM. We feel spiritually exhausted. At some point along the way, we forgot to check our spiritual “gas” gage and we simply run out. How unfortunate…but let’s face it, it happens, doesn’t it?

Let’s think about the woman at the well. If you are unfamiliar with the story, take a few minutes and read John 4:1-26. This woman is tired. She is worn out – emotionally and spiritually. She craves something to fill her up, to fill her tank! And then Jesus comes with an offer, “Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Jesus offers to fill up our spiritual gas tank so that we never run out, but it takes effort on our part! This is why we constantly need to be connected to God – praying, fasting, reading our Bibles, going to church, talking about our spiritual lives with others, etc. All of these things are like checking our gas gage. All of these things ensure that we do not run out of spiritual gas.

Thanks be to God that we have each other to help remind us to check our gage before we run out of gas!