Enough

On the first day of TFC Camp 2013 campers entered the chapel and saw words like ‘Hopeless’, ‘Rejected’, ‘Unloved’ hanging on all of the walls. Strange camp decorations, right? But wait...At the front of the chapel was a heart with the words TRUTH written across it. As the week went on, we slowly covered over the lies (rejected, unloved, etc) that satan wants us to believe with God’s truth. Hopeless was covered with Hope. Rejected was covered with Accepted. Unloved was covered with Loved. Our prayer was that as the campers began to see the TRUTH found in Scripture, God would begin to write His truth on their hearts. As part of our debriefing on the last day of camp Lavonne asked the teens what word God had written on their heart. I couldn’t help but grin as camper after camper raised their hand to share the truth God had written: Cared about, Hope...Renewed...Brave...Found...Accepted...Chosen…Healed...Forgiven... Encouraged...Content.

As this was happening Lavonne encouraged the teens to tell the staff the truth God had written on their heart. Because she said that it was only through their hard work and prayers in putting this all together that God had been able to reveal this truth to them. Her words brought tears to my eyes. Because one of my biggest struggles with TFC is that I can’t see the results of all the hours I pour into it. And these words that the teens were sharing—this was results! This was God working through me for His glory! It still just amazes me that He does so! Later a girl came up to me and with tears in her eyes wrapped me in a hug and said, “Abbie, I want you to know that God wrote capable on my heart this week and you played a role in that.” WOW!

Honestly, I shouldn’t need to see the results of what I do here at TFC. My focus is loving Jesus and doing my best to bring Him glory. So, I keep telling myself that I don’t need to see results. I can rest in the peace that comes with knowing God works despite me. But throughout these two weeks of camp, God saw this desire of my heart and used teenagers to write ENOUGH on my heart.

I have struggled for a very long time with not feeling good enough. It was something that I wasn’t really aware of until this past year, but once I saw it, I began to see how that lie really impacts how I live. I was living under my own truth rather than the truth that Jesus speaks over my life. But I want to tell you something; over this past summer God has changed me. He’s changed my heart. And I don’t know if I can even fully explain it, but there are times when I honestly can’t even help but grin at what God is doing here! A friend of mine was talking about living life not always being sure of the next step, but not worrying about it. She said, “I get to be me with my Jesus. What’s better than that?” And that phrase just keeps echoing through my head, “I get to be me with my Jesus.” Throughout the events of this past summer I have fallen more and more in love with Jesus and I can honestly say that I am at a place where I love just being me with my Jesus. He is enough for me! When you sink your feet into that, how can you not live life with joy? And as I sank my feet into this truth, as I began to care more about what God thought of me than others, God used others to show that what I am doing IS enough.

At camp this year we did a new thing called ‘Kudos’. Basically it was just a note of encouragement that you could write to someone else and put in the Kudos Box. Then at meal times we’d deliver all of the Kudos. It was really fun! I mean...it was supposed to be for the campers, but I think this was another way that God showed me how He IS using me here. I got notes that said, “You are so happy. But into God. Thank you.” “I can tell by your attitude that you’re a Christian. I look up to you!” “I can really tell you are totally in love with Jesus and it has been a huge inspiration to me. You are a lot of the reason I’m where I’m at in my faith today.” WOW. Honestly, that just blows me away! Because I FEEL like I’m more in love with Jesus, but having other people notice and look up to that? That’s so crazy to me! And I’m not sharing these to build myself up, but to show how God uses us even when we feel like we’re doing nothing. God works beyond and above and through us, and it’s SO stinkin’ cool! So as I prepare for a new school year, I’m resting in the peace that comes from knowing God’s got this. And guess what? He’s got your situation under control too. We may not be able to see that at all. But I am convinced that God is our rock, He is our fortress, His plan is GOOD, and we can rest in that!