Sunday, July 31, 2011

A Gloriously Failed Summer.

Coming into this summer, I had a grand scheme in my head for what I’d do all summer. I would read about 15 books. I would lay on the beach to work on my white man tan. I would plug in my iPod and listen to pod-casts by my favorite preachers. I would even get myself in shape for my upcoming soccer season. But Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”



I had made a plan, but I’m finally beginning to understand how much greater God’s plan is compared to mine. Any time my plans had failed, I have always been disappointed because I could not see the end results yet. However, this time I was happy to have my plans changed because, from what I could see, my summer was going to be very long and very boring.



My summer changed about a month in when Neil Macris had called my house to tell Hannah that he needed another worker for the Junior Camp at Porto Astro. Conveniently, my mother had answered the phone and suggested that I go. So I did. It was that single phone call that changed my whole summer. You see, this camp started on June 20th and lasted 5 days, but I didn’t stop working for this ministry until July 30th, over 50 days later. I was dubbed “the guy who came and never left.” I had worked that Junior Camp, a church camp, Teen Camp, and Operation Joshua 4.



That was something that I could not even imagine happening even at the beginning of June. It was the best thing that could’ve happened. The amount of friends I made are innumerable. (Well, they could be counted, but I’m not going to for hyperbole’s sake.) The amount of things I done which I haven’t done is unbelievable: Belaying on the climbing wall, spotting on a boat, cleaning a boat, anchoring a pontoon boat, tying a pontoon boat, putting an engine in Salt-Away, baking an endless number of treats, making a Frappe, putting up any kind of tent, and many other things that I don’t need to mention because you get the point. I learned a lot.


The practical skills I learned are many, but the internal, spiritual skills that I have developed are much more valuable. There was so much work to be done the past 50 days, and I learned quickly that when I put others higher than myself, I can enjoy the work I’m doing much more than if I did it for my own gain. I didn’t mind cleaning pots and pans, or scrubbing toilets, or making Bruce Juice as long as I knew that it would take the burden off someone else.

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.


Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
-Romans 12:3-13


God used me to bless others this summer, but it wasn’t because I wanted to do it. It was God’s plan. My plan was selfish and dull, but God’s plan was selfless and full of adventures that I couldn’t even fathom. So I ask you to submit to God’s plan. Don’t be so down hearted when one of your plans fails because I am certain God has something great in store for you.



C.S. Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters:
“The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor’s talents---or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognize all creatures (even himself) as  glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love---a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own; when they have really learned to love their neighbors as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbors. For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left.”