Thinking about my camp experience, some stories make me smile more than others. Like when I was eating dinner one night and one of the other girl counselors came up and gave me a hug. My little 8 year old camper asked who that was and then said "wow! She's prettier than you are!"
The same week, I was having a friendly duel with patience. Up to that point of the summer, I had had 15 year olds who at least know the basics of cleaning...Not so with 8 year olds. One of the girls excitedly volunteered the first day to clean the toilet, and obviously I agreed. It is rare to find such passion in one so young....
The whole week, my cabin regularly failed cabin check. It. Was. Bad. I tried getting them up 20 minutes earlier, I showed them how to clean, I cleaned with them without actually doing all of the work for them...
Everyday, though, the girls left the cabin sure that they would win because of how beautiful it was. Saturday morning, I packed all of my little ducks (which is what I had called them all week) and sent them out the door onto their lovely bus. Then I began to really clean. The cabin wasn't destroyed, but it sure did need some work to get it up to passing for my cabin check the next day.
Think about us, as Christians, as 8 year olds serving God. We can try so hard, and we do the best that we can serving God, but our best work is so pathetic, its laughable. We can push ourselves harder and set aside more time to serve Him, go door knocking every Saturday, but ultimately, its no better. You can study up for serving God. I was reading a Jerry Bridges book and got the inspiration for this post. There are so many great books about how to serve God and do everything. Again, though, we're still just 8 year olds trying to clean a cabin.
I get it. You have to let God help you! That's how you succeed at the Christian life! So we work just as hard as we were working before and.... we still fail at cabin inspection.
Here's my point. Just like the cabin didn't pass until I cleaned it, our service for God won't pass until He does it. All of it. I know its not a perfect illustration, especially because God does use us to complete His perfect work, but He always uses us in such a way that, if we really looked at it, we'd realize that none of that was from our own work.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9
Live dependant on God's grace and allow Him to work wonders.
Because of Him,
Missa
Missa
