Our theme this summer is "Quit Trying So Hard." Romans 4:13-16 emphasizes that our efforts to "be good" so that God will like us and continue to love us only leads to frustration and endless striving to continue to please Him. This has been my life. Either consciously or unconsciously I have lived with a constant "looking over my shoulder" to see if my choices have pleased or disappointed God which led to my feeling close or distant from Him. From my perspective I could never do enough or be good enough to keep Him happy with me.I am know walking in a new freedom. Jesus did it all on the cross. Because Christ took the sin of the world, the sin of all time upon himself, God turned His back to His son. Jesus did this so we would never have to feel God turning from us. We never have to experience what He felt when He cried out "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Faith in Christ determines our relationship with Him, not our deeds and choices.Quit trying to be good, quit trying to replace God, quit trying to do it alone and quit trying to be someone else is our message to hundreds of students and adults this summer. A powerful message combined with challenging and rewarding activities in addition to true transparency of our staff have made the first two weeks of camp life changing. I look forward to what God has in store for the rest of the summer in the lives of campers, staff and myself.Lance Giles
In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
I recently worked with a group from Grace Fellowship Outreach from Eustace, TX. We had a blast, what a great bunch of people. On the first day we hiked to the top of Elk Mountain in the Wichita Mountains. It was great to watch them interact. They had fun together, they shared water with each other, and they even pointed out poison ivy on the trail for each other. I could truly tell they cared for one another. And intertwined in all of that kindness were sarcastic jokes. No one said them with mean intent, but sarcasm has a way of hurting people without anyone knowing it. That night we discussed Matt. 22 and what it means to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I told them what I had noticed and challenged them to refrain from sarcasm for the weekend. It was great to see them work together by keeping each other accountable on this and even catching themselves from making sarcastic comments. They were very encouraging during our climbing and rappelling the next few days. That is a great group of students and I pray that they take this lesson to heart and truly change the way they speak to one another.
A kind word goes a long way. And a mean one goes just as far. We need to challenge ourselves with these questions: Have I been short with someone recently? Have I snapped at them? Have I been sarcastic towards someone? Even a friend? I believe the way to start loving your neighbor as yourself is to lift them up with your words. The benefits of this become even more evident during the challenging activities that we do at Compass Wilderness.Shane Seaton
