A reflection from the area leader camping trip

This weekend South County had its annual leader camping trip. This was my first one and it was awesome. Dave and Meghan did such a good job planning everything out and it was great to just be able to sit and enjoy.

Dave had asked me to prepare a devotional for some time he set aside for silence and solitude. I was pumped to be able to prepare something.

But, as is fairly typical with me, there were a few mistakes. I caught a few minor typos as I was passing the devos out to people, but it wasn't till I was out in my own solitude that I caught a big one. 

At first I thought about trying to find everyone so I could tell them the right passage of scripture to read, but soon realized I just had to let it go...

And that's when I felt Jesus laughing at me. Not a cruel laugh, but a laugh like he had just put whipped cream on my face in front of a bunch of important people... and he was inviting me to laugh as well.

It was wonderful. 

I felt so truly loved, in the middle of failure, I felt completely known and completely loved. Jesus then told me four things:

I KNOW you.

I LOVE you.

You are USEFUL.

You are VALUABLE.

Since coming on staff a few months ago I have gotten so caught up in trying to do things the "right" way. I've gotten caught up I'm trying to be more like what I think people want me to be, or, honestly, more like a person I think people would want to support.

But God picked me, as I am, not me as I now want to be. 

I am going to make many many more mistakes in Young Life. I'm going to have much bigger failures... but God works through everything, and he loves through everything as well.

So I want to say thanky you. Thank you for supporting our crew of Jesus followers walking around with whipped cream on our faces. Thank you for supporting the kids we are going after. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

And thank you Dave. Thanks for all your hard work. I'm sure it feels like herding cats sometimes. This weekend was epic.