Obeying Jesus

Beginning of this week, our assistant camp director challenged the counselors to come up with a phrase that would describe what kind of things we would get to God. For example, he said that he would "dig through mountains" or "claw down a tree" if it meant he could be with Jesus. I came up with this poem to describe what I would do for Jesus. The poem ended up being a real convicting message to myself because if I am willing to do these kinds of things to get to Jesus, why was I complaining and being discouraged about my sprained ankle? This week definitely was a challenging week and many times I retreated to a quiet place, begging God to take me home. I did make it through the week and I wish I could say that my attitude was great. Truth of the matter is that it wasn't. By the end of the week, I could no longer take my sore arms, feeling helpless and unable to do many basic things I could do on my healthy ankle. I was frustrated by my inability to even walk to the bathroom or to the shower by myself. But looking back God did use me in a mighty way this week despite my sprained ankle by leading the girls in Bible studies and sharing my testimony in front of the entire camp.

In Bible study our cabin talked about Hebrews 11 on how only through faith we can please God. Faith isn't just an abstract concept where we passively believe about something. Truth faith manifests itself in actions. We told our girls that sometimes God may ask us to do absurd things that people may tease and mock you for. My brilliant and wonderful junior counselor, Blair, usually helps me lead the girls in Bible study and provide great examples. Blair told the girls about Noah's ark and how when he was building the ark, many people ridiculed him. Noah continued to obey despite what he or the world thought was sane and in the end was saved from the flood. I got to offer a personal example to the girls by telling them that when I badly sprained my ankle on Tuesday, my family and some of the counselors thought it was absurd that I stayed back at Promise Camp. What will a counselor do on a crutches? Well, this ended up being a great example because I could share with my girls that by faith I did an absurd thing of staying back in Promise Camp and obeying God. In the end, I believe God honored my obedience through providing this personal and perfect example for our study of faith in Bible study. Not only that, I had the chance to share my testimony in front of the entire camp and witness some of my girls breakdown by the love of Jesus. I'll write more about it in detail this weekend. Meanwhile, here is the poem God gave me the chance to share with the camp.

I'm willing to jump in the fire
if it means obeying Jesus.
I'm willing to fill my lungs with water
if it means obeying Jesus.
I'm willing to starve and thirst
for the sake of obeying Jesus
I'm wiling to suffer humiliation, mutilation
for the sake of obeying Jesus.

People say I'm a crazy
lunatic, a Jesus Freak.
Taking my faith to seriously.
But I ask,
What is the point of believing
if it doesn't cost you anything, really?

Isn't destroying your life with lies,
sex, alcohol and drugs, or worse, slowly
choking yourself with wealth and selfishness
worse than dying under the sword for Jesus' name?

God may not call all of us as martyrs
but we can still die to ourselves each day,
loving God and loving others.