"We are more broken than we know, which means grace is bigger than we imagined." ~ Wade Poe (he may have stolen it :))
My final day at Camp Caudle, I saw this from my friend Wade. He was not at Camp Caudle, but he could have been based on this quote alone...and the timing.
I could post every day for the next month, and I am not sure I could cover all of the lessons I learned in the past eight days at Camp Caudle. I may have been a counselor, but I believe it was I who was being counseled. :)
As I drove the long road home, I listened to my sweet Jordan's favorite, Francesca Battistelli, and the song Motion of Mercy came on, and I knew...
If there is a song that captures this past week (for me), this is it. Lee and Brent did a great job with Spiritual Warfare and making the point that God IS love. Period. End of discussion. I have so much to write on that alone. We have to do more. We have to love more. We have to show more grace. We have to preach more love...more grace.
I digress....:)
The kids this week humbled me. They reminded me of my own unworthiness. My own personal struggles. My own challenges in remembering that we are all broken in some way, and that God's grace reaches each of us...wherever we are...ALL the time. Our world PUMMELS these kids. Our world pummeled this (me) kid when I was their age (okay...even now). I saw the most beautiful, talented, loving, big-hearted kids SO full of insecurities and doubts. I shook my head in disbelief at the damage Satan (i.e., the world) has done to their spirits...to their hearts. They were thanking me for believing in them, and I was saying no...it is I who needs to thank YOU....each of you.
I have been at peace with a decision that I have been challenged with for over six months now, but this past week...that peace solidified. I don't know how...but it did, and I am sitting here (still without a bubble bath I desperately need...I smell SO bad! :)) in awe. I thought I knew the path God was putting me on, but I believe God just threw in a curve ball I was not prepared for...he is SO funny that way. :) God wants more from me...*Sigh*...:)))
I remain only vaguely aware of what the next months and years hold for me, and yet there is SO much more that I am unaware of....I only know that it will require me to give MORE of my heart. {Oooh....my body just twitched. My vulnerability five bell alarm just went off. I am going to have to get over it.} A bunch of kids, angels sent from God, showed me that this past week. They think I taught them something, but they taught me....and I have a sinking suspicion they have a few more lessons for "us" (them and me) in the months and years to come. Someone warned me that Camp Caudle's Livingstone's week would change me; they were all too right. :)))
So....my prayer for each of the kids I met this past week is that they will not only run THEIR race, but that they will run the race that GOD intended for them. For some of them...we may be running it together. ;)
"More than three thousand years ago a man named Job complained to God about all his troubles and the Bible tells us that God answered. Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paused fiercely, rejoicing in his strength and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing, He does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground. He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds." ~ Penny Chenery, Secretariat
God IS love....and that is the Motion of Mercy. The lesson has begun...:)
Sunshine Dreams to You ~ Today and Every Day! :)
