LESSONS FROM A WEEK AT CAMP



We recently got back from Fusion Youth Camp. As one of our older students put it: “Camp was amazing!” Many other students have expressed to me how much they loved the camp this year using words like incredible, awesome, and powerful. 

What is it that makes an event like youth camp amazing? The food was less than perfect. I lost at least five pounds as did other leaders and students. The dorms were acceptable; yet the lack of air conditioning and absence of a breeze made them very warm places. The rigorous schedule allowed for about 5 to 6 hours of sleep at night. Certainly the accommodations and daily activities are not what you'd experience at a vacation resort. Yet I have not had anyone say to me: “I wish I had not gone to camp—it was a big waste of time!”

I believe we were blessed because we had the opportunity to intensely live out Matthew 6:33 for an entire week. Consider what this verse says: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

For a week’s time, we didn't seek entertainment through secular media, programming, and music. We starved ourselves from the Internet and we got on a schedule of Bible teaching, fellowship, worship and prayer. We confessed sin and believers crowded the alter in prayer and in response to God’s word. We sought God’s kingdom and His righteousness and the external things of life suddenly took a ‘back seat.’

Living out Matthew 6:33 shouldn't end with the bus ride home from camp. It should become our daily pattern of life. We ought to maintain a lifestyle full of Bible teaching, confession/repentance of sin, fellowship with other believers, worship, and prayer. If you want to see God work in you and through you in mighty ways adopt this way of life. And when it’s all said and done your remarks about our Lord will include words like “Amazing, Incredible, Powerful, and Awesome!!”

By Doug Hayes