Hey guys,
One thing we will do weekly on this blog is post some scripture, food for thought if you will, to generate conversation or maybe even to help get your mind right for camp. The majority of our staff is made up of students (college kids), or hold a student-like schedule, so what better time than the summer to dive deeper into the word and grow closer to God? We also want to encourage you to dissect these verses and apply them to your everyday life as we approach the first day of camp (Saturday, July 14).
PHILIPPIANS 3:12-13
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
In the comment section below, I want to encourage you to share with us ways that you have overcome tough times, adversity, etc...and continued to press on towards your goal. Also note that in verse 13, it talks about forgetting what is behind and focusing on what lies ahead. This could also mean forgiving someone who has done you wrong in the past, or letting go (2012 camp theme) of something/someone who is preventing you from having a better relationship with the Lord.
Anyways - Read. Digest. Share below.
With the thought of 'letting go' I love the end of verse 12 - Jesus took hold of us! When we let go we can know that it's not into the darkness, but rather into his arms - and that's a great place to be!
ReplyDeletebrad
Within the past year, I have had two major things personally in my life happen that were/are big impacts in my life. Both bringing up the theme of "Letting Go". One was my back. Most know, but I have had back problems, well it increased worse and worse, and right now we are coming around the 4 month mark of this process. I finally had surgery 4 weeks ago, and its still a little frustrating because I am very limited on what I can do. So through many times I have been reminded that I need to Let Go of some of these frustrations and realize that God is in control, and that he DID provide doctors to find out what was wrong, and fix it. The other big impact in my life within this last year is meeting a particular girl. I do not have the greatest past. Everyone has their own stories, but mine lately has been bothering me. When explaining to her about my past, she didn't judge me or anything, but realized who I am and who I want to be. She helped me realize that I need to Let Go of that, in order to grow stronger and closer to God. I could definitely go into a lot more detail with both of those, but that is what I have to share for now. Love you all.
ReplyDeleteChris
Sometimes I am taken back to my early moments in my Christian faith. There are some big moments and influential lessons that have shaped the man I am today. (Not that I am so special), however, I can remember this concept of “Letting Go” as clearly as the ring of a bell. I remember sitting in fellowship freshman year of college (2000 A.D.) wondering why every message and every mentor mentioned letting go. In my mind it was overused and overplayed, yet today I realize it is the pinnacle of Jesus. It has become such a cornerstone to my walk as a Christian and rightfully so. Without the concepts of contrition and surrender we have no lifeline. This is it! THIS IS THE BIG DEAL! We are the only faith today that practices speaking to active God who intercedes on our behalf who answers our call ... Who loves us first! Without the submission, without yield, we are just treading water, just spinning our tires. GOING NOWHERE! And in this lies the most beautiful concept of all ... By surrendering and relinquishing control, God is given the chance to take control. By admitting we can do nothing ... He can do everything. As the inevitable enemy approaches, we waive the white flag and are given the chance to LIVE!
ReplyDeleteNot that my story is as personal as the others above, but this past softball season I struggled quite a bit. Not with what I could do, but with what my coach was doing. All last season (2011), I was talked up and was told that this year would be a great year for me and by the end of the season I might be pitching both games. What actually happened is I would pitch one game and would sometimes get taken off the mound when I was doing just fine. Although this story doesn't apply much to God and my life with Him, the nights after games did. I would go home every night confused, and at night I begged God to help me do better and prayed that next time I could do something different to stay out there and play, just because I felt like I had to prove to my coach that I COULD do it. There were plenty of times that I just wanted to give up on myself, but God obviously didn't have that in my plan. In our first game of Districts I pitched and had a great game getting my team into the final game. God obviously didn't give up on me, as I did on myself. That game helped me to forget all the stress the past of the season had given me and look forward to what was ahead of both me and my team. The whole experience helped me to put even more faith into God; that he might have one thing go wrong, but he has another, better thing planned for the future.
ReplyDeleteSarah , great insight. Keep those thoughts coming. Thanks for the post!
DeleteI'm SO proud of you, my Sara! You've come so far from the petite, shy little girl that I could hardly get to play catch with me when I was a camper. I know you will make a brilliant and loving member of the staff this summer.
DeleteThe past twelve or so months of my life have been tough. I have always been in the "popular crowd" my whole entire life. Rarely having to struggle with friends and being good at anything I tried, it all just came fairly easy to me. Well, people started experimenting with things i just didn't feel comfortable around, such as late night bonfires and parties with alcohol and possibly drugs. My girlfriend at the time started to partake in these parties and it wasn't going to work out so we ended up calling it quits. This is when it started to get tough. Soon, almost all of my closest friends started to party and drink, but that wasn't my thing so i put my foot down and said go do what you want, I’m not going to judge you or tell you what to do, but just be careful and don't ask me because that’s pretty "stupid."
ReplyDeleteMore days went on and i started to move on and “let go”. Eventually my closest friend got caught by his parents. I figured that some of the kids would (whose parents cared) but then it got turned around on me and how i told his parents that they were drinking because “i tell my parents everything that happens.” This was however false and nearly every person that went to those parties hated me and wouldn’t even talk to me. Keep in mind these were my closest and best friends since kindergarten that i grew up with and built extremely close relationships with. I started running and playing as much sports as i could, I focused all of my energy on the things i loved mostly because it hurt to think and know I had hardly any good friends. It didn't stop there as football rolled around half of my teammates wouldn't even talk to me unless they had to. More rumors started flying and it was hard to take. I cried myself to sleep many nights asking God why this was happening and what i should do. I had many conversations with my dad as we both were crying about everything as it hurt him and my mom sometimes more than me. He kept saying better things are to come.
One night i got a Facebook message from two girls that I have went to school with since my early childhood and used to be good friends with, but we had drifted away from each other over the first few years of high school. They wanted to know if i wanted to go to the beach with them and hangout at their cottage and at first i was hesitant, but I went and we talked about every ones recent decisions and how they were making bad choices. Turns out they decided to not partake in those events either and had the same feelings and morals as I did.
These girls saved me we ate lunch every day together. Although the other stuff didn’t stop and I had rumors flying around that “I was gay and liked guys” and such I just avoided it all. Because if I did confront these rumors and made a big deal about them they would have blown up even bigger. I just let them go and roll off my shoulders. Every day I had something bright to look forward to and God put more people in my life that cared about me and were “True and Genuine friends” and didn’t care if they weren’t popular and liked. As long as they were true to themselves and God that’s all they needed.
Things certainly started to go my way after that as I let go, better things started to come my way such as sports accomplishments, community service awards, scholarships, and most of all opportunity at a Christian college to play my absolute favorite sport of baseball for a scholarship. Wow what a turnaround. Even though it’s not about the awards and accomplishments it still felt so good.
God works in mysterious ways and he made me into a stronger individual through this experience that is what it was all about. Things get harder before they get better. Jesus Christ used this to help me and guide me to a life of deeper faith in him that he will guide and protect you, and he does have an ultimate plan for us.
P.S. Sorry it was kinda long but it feels good to put it all out there and explain it all.
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DeleteMorgan! Incredible. You are wise beyond your years my friend. Veteran staff are talking bout how great a post that was. Keep the thoughts coming.
DeleteNice stuff Morgan
Deletemorgan you are learning lessons that many will never go through and will never understand. however, it is/will only make you a stronger man and a child of God because of it. stay strong.
DeleteAbsolutely Loving the shared thoughts guys... if any of you are uncomfortable with me sharing any of these at camp, please let me know and I'll do my best to respect your wishes, but I think that this can be a pretty powerful tool to make 'Letting Go' come alive for the students this year!
ReplyDeleteHey there future friends :) Katie invited me to come to camp this summer and work with all of you as assistant dean, and I have to say, I'm very excited for this opportunity! It sounds like you're a bunch of great folks and I look forward to spending time with you.
ReplyDeleteI've just read all of your posts, and I'm really blown away by your faith and convictions. It's so inspiring to hear about the ways in which you are all able to cling to God in these difficult situations. Isn't it amazing how God can break us in ways that bring us closer to Him? A friend once told me that He breaks those parts of us that we were not meant for, and yes, it's painful sometimes, but then we have the opportunity to replace the brokenness with the parts that He intended for us.
It feels kind of weird sharing this with strangers (!), but I feel as though my challenges have become an important part of my identity, and have definitely helped to shape me into who I am today! I'm sure we will have time at camp to talk more about this kind of stuff, so I'll try to keep it as short as possible. About two and a half years ago (wow, I can't believe it's been that long already...) my mom was rushed into emergency surgery with a leaking brain aneurysm. She spent weeks in a coma, 7 months in the hospital, and 3 more months in a nursing home before she was able to come home. Today, she isn't the person she was, as she has suffered massive amounts of brain damage from the aneurysm and subsequent strokes. This challenge has been incredibly trying for my family and me, and trust me, we haven't always handled it with grace. I find that my relationship with my dad has become strained because of his new responsibilities as a full-time caretaker, his essentially single parent status, and because of my childish need to still have my parents to take care of me. I have a younger brother who has endured this, too, and I also am heartbroken for the pain that he feels at the loss of our parents.
I don't really have a "happy ending" or any resolution to this situation, for that matter, to share with you. The issues are on-going, and we're not sure what the future holds for my family. I have to be honest with all of you in saying that this has seriously rocked my faith and everything I thought that I so firmly believed in. I continue to be incredibly angry with God and have to find positive ways to channel my energy daily (luckily, He can handle whatever anger I throw at him). Fortunately, through my pain, the Lord has mercifully provided me with some amazing avenues to healing (and sometimes distraction) in the meantime. I have a sincerely angelic group of people in my life who have provided me with much strength (my mother's caretaker, Donna, my little brother, my boyfriend, my roommates, my cousins, my teammates, my best friends... the list goes on!), and I've also been offered some interesting opportunities. Last summer, I traveled to Cambodia with a group from my church to help children who have been victims of the notorious sex-trafficking industry in the area. I deeply felt as though God was calling me, in my time of pain and suffering, to reach out to others who are also suffering in a completely different corner of the globe. Not only was I able to make an impact, but serving others soothed my own pain and helped me put some of the more trivial things in my life into perspective.
As I said before, my story is an important part of my identity, so I'm definitely ok with sharing at camp! My aunt told me once (on a particularly self-piteous day) that I'm enduring these challenges for a reason... so that someday, when I have a student or a coworker or a friend who is going through hell, I'll have already been there and will be able to help them through. That is my greatest hope!
Katie Starr--Thank you for sharing your life with complete strangers and being authentic! WOW-- I don't even have words.
DeleteLike Katie said she will be my Assistant Dean this summer, welcome her to the team! :)
As KT stated and I would just like to reenforce, it takes great courage to open up and speak with such authenticity to complete stranger as you have. Thank you for your words and I have a feeling you will provide some much needed advice/counseling to someone this year at camp.
DeletePROPHOCY! Recieve it KATE!
DeleteWords can not express ...
ReplyDeleteHey guys Im new to the Bay Shore family and Katie advised me, and I agree with her, that sharing my story with all of you would really help you get to understand me a little better.
ReplyDeleteWell my past year has been one of the most challenging, tough years I've ever had to live through. On December 30th of 2010 my mother came home from a day working down at our Sunoco gas station (a.k.a. The Log Cabin) and informed us that she had been diganosed with stage 3 breast cancer. My whole body froze and I just sat there in a daze as she explained all that she must go through. I couldn't even cry. She told us that the doctors told her that if they didn't start treatment soon, she would be dead in two years. I remember that night when everyone was in bed i broke down. I was angry, at a lot of things. I was angry at the doctors for missing this several times in the past, I was angry at my mom for being sick, but mostly I was angry at God. I remember yelling at him, saying how could you do this to ME! What I didn't get in that moment is that i wasn't going to have to battle cancer, my mom was. In times that I should of been praying to God for my mom, I was yelling at him for doing this to me. I didn't understand what I did to deserve this. I bottled all my emotions inside because I didn't want to burden my mom with my problems. She of course senced me pain, as all mothers can, and sat me down. We had a long talk and she basically told me that everything happens for a reason, and that God never gives you anything you can't handle. She said she doesn't understand it either,but God has some plan for her, and this is a part of it. At first after this talk I was mad at my mom for being so calm about all this, but after I really thought about it I understood that this is something no one deserves, but if there's someone who could beat it, it was my mom. To make a long story short she had chemo for six months, and then had a double mastectomy to remove her four inch tumor, and several lympynodes. After that she had six more weeks of chemo, along with six and a half weeks or radiation. After all of this she had another surgery to remove skin cancer off her shoulder, and had a hysterectomy. It had been a long year and a half but my mom was officially pronounced cancer free. It was very challenging time, and I had many break down moments where with out God I wouldn't have made it through. I learned to "LET GO" of my anger, and realize i needed to be there for my mom. Well guys that was pretty much my last year. Some might look at it as a bad year, but i learned a lot about myself, and got a lot closer with God. I'm really excited to be around camp this year, and help many kids "LET GO", and also find their way to get closer with God.
Hey guys, Some of you I know and some of you I don't. You may know my older brother Brennan Pitcher or my younger sister Lexi Pitcher. I have worked at Bay Shore in the office for the past two years and I've seen all the lives that his camp has changed and I am excited to be a part of this team this year.
ReplyDeleteLET GO. This is definitely something I have had to deal with this past year. Letting go of the friends and the relationships I've had over these past couple years of college. Letting go of the thought I had about God because of past experiences...
At the end of last years school year, April (2011), I was bombarded by a bunch of nasty words towards me. To start off, I joined a Christian Organization my freshman year of college, His House. I had made so many friends and was having the time of my life at and having a college experience in the way I knew I should be, filling my life with Godly things and Godly actions. I had joined a small group called freshman bible study through His House and my sophomore year since my group got so close our sophomore year we decided to do sophomore bible study. Little did I know, starting SBS would soon break His House totally apart. At the end of the school year my small group started acting totally different, they would not talk to me or listen to my comments during small group and I really had no idea what was going on. Finally one of my leaders could also see what was happened and asked if I would go to dinner with her. I agreed because she told me she had been hearing some things. She informed me that a lot of people were saying a lot of negative things about me and went on to tell me what they were saying. I was astounded as to what I was hearing and very hurt. This little talking turned into breaking all of His House apart and I ended up leaving the group.
It is now the summer after my junior year and I am still feeling VERY alone here at school. I have tried to get back into His House but it is still not the same. The group has totally changed because everyone left. I feel like a freshman again because I don't know anyone. I have found 3 new friends that I actually new freshman year but didn't really give them the respect and time they deserved. I'm trying to LET GO of the past relationships that I have had through His House and give this group, and God another chance.
I have seen how alone i've felt without His House and I don't want to feel like this anymore. I'm really looking forward to camp to get my mind and life back on track and I can't wait to learn from everyone. I am excited for my senior year of college, i'm living with all new girls and we have decided to honestly get back into His House. They have convinced me to sing and play guitar again for His House and plug myself back into the worship team. I also think this will help with the fact that I need to LET GO off past years, because they are in my past for a reason!
Emily, Hang in there and def give church a chance again. Sometimes seasons come and go with fellowships, churches, and small groups. Life in ministry can be a challenge because sometimes we forget "Christians" are real people. People with junk, bagage, lies, drama, perversions, and sometimes just plain 'ol bad attitudes. When they let us down it can seem "Un-acceptable!" But Jesus knows our imperfections and loves us just the same. As an imitator of him, we love our persecutors and pray for our enemys. Even those who seem to always "Claim they are Christians" but seem to defy all that we stand for. Don't let a couple bad apples get in the way of your relationship with Him. After all He's what its all about!
DeleteI think this past year was one of the hardest for me. The Christmas of 2010 my paretn told my brother and I they wanted to get a divorce. That was hard for us to hear, my brother took it much harder than I did and moved out. i thought I was losing my parent and now my brother leaves me too. Things just seemed like they couldnt get any worse. My parents never did file for a divorce. They just walked around ignoring each other. I was always stuck in the middle. "Kayla, go tell you dad..." "Kayla, tell your mom I said..." I hated it. I didn't like being at my own house anymore. I would go to friends or stay out late because home was the last place I wanted to be. My parents have been on and off since than. God gave me the strenght to deal with all of this and I know God helped my parents as well. I am thankful that God has kept my parents together, it may not always be perfect but we are still and family. My brother did move back home so we are all together now :)
ReplyDeleteWithout going too far back in my past, I'll share a story from this past year. As some of you know, I married Kyle Kowalski (you'll know him as Bryce this year in the Shore, lol) in May. When we were first engaged, all the excitement leading up to our wedding was there. I have been blessed with three of the greatest friends throughout my years at CMU. I knew that they were going to be a huge part of the planning and would invest in me as I experience the second most important day of my life (second only to entering in to a relationship with Christ). That isn't what happened though.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my three friends just dropped off. I never really saw them. They didn't text me for updates. I tried to move past it because I tend to think that if someone doesn't want to spend time with me then I don't want them to feel forced. I decided to let it go and not talk to them about feeling abandoned. I was fearful that if I talked to them they would feel terrible and they would only spend time with me because they felt as if they had to. I was in a time in my life where I was out there on my own. None of my close friends have been married or were getting married at the same time as me. I was very alone.
After a few months of feeling this way, I was just crying out to God in my loneliness every day, pleading with Him to take away the lonely feelings or to give me the courage to talk to them about it. One of these nights, I finally felt at peace. God reinforced in me that I was the farthest thing from alone. First of all because I have the BEST friend in the world (you might know her, Stefanie Baranic). Stef and I have been best friends and roommates for the last five years. I always say that she's the friend who I get exactly what I would give. Secondly, I have Kyle who was and will be my best friend for the rest of our lives. From that day forward, I "let go" of what I felt like I was missing and fully embraced what I so obviously had/have.
I think that is a mistake we all make... longing for something we don't think we have, instead of looking at our lives and realizing how much we do have.
(End of the story was even better, reconciliation happened!)
I’m going to start this off a little bit different then the rest of the posts by telling you about my most amazing year in my walk with Christ.
ReplyDeleteMy freshman year of high school I had a great opportunity to go on a mission trip to Redbird, Kentucky over Spring break. If you don’t know, on this mission trip we help repair houses for families that are struggling financially or are physically unable to do it themselves. While in Kentucky I really learned to appreciate what I had after seeing all of those families. During the day wasn’t where the magic happened though; it was at night during devotions. I don’t know how many of you know me personally but I’m not the kind of person who likes to open up or share things about my personal life with others, so naturally the first few nights I just sat a listened as others shared. It was the last night when I finally got the courage to talk and tell the group about how God had changed my life completely in only a week. I talked about how I have grown up in a Christian family and have gone to church for as long as I can remember but I was only going threw the motions. Yeah, I believed in Christ and took all of my problems to him but I never really “felt” him in my life. That week you could feel His presence; it was like nothing I have ever experienced. After spending that week in Kentucky my faith was stronger then it had ever been by far. I talked to God numerous times a day, wanted to go to church and youth group (Uncommon), read my bible to learn and grow, and most important, I trusted Him. I never questioned Him because I knew that He had a specific reason for what he was doing. My entire Freshman year went this way and it carried over into the beginning of my sophomore year, and I can honestly say I don’t remember one day that I didn’t love everything about my life during that period of time.
Now comes the turning point. The summer going into my junior year is when I started drifting. Youth group didn’t seem quite as important to me and being “uncommon” wasn’t exactly what I wanted my label to be. I wanted to fit in and do the things I thought you were supposed to do in high school. I got a boyfriend and he was great, had a strong faith most of the time kept me on track. The problem with being so close to someone like I was is that I no longer took my problems to God first or even talked to Him, I talked to my boyfriend and looked to him with my problems. I kept my faith but I was back to going through the motions. These mistakes are what later lead me to my breaking point. After my boyfriend and I broke up I lost that person that I could talk to about anything and the person that solved all my problems. The summer going in to my senior year was when I faced the toughest trials and dealt with challenge after challenge. I felt alone and although God was with me the whole time I didn’t do anything but push him away. That summer I struggled with a lot of personal things that I’m still really uncomfortable talking about. After I got most of it figured out it was finally time for school. Although I was better then I was that summer I was not even close to where I had been 2 years before. I still wanted to live up my last year of high school and do all the things I had missed out on my first three years. I was super lonely because I still distanced myself from Christ. I became a person I never thought I would be. I remember yelling at God and questioning him, I didn’t have an ounce of trust in him. I also became that girl that looked for love in all the wrong places. I started drinking and tried to fill the hole in my life with all the temptations I used to be so good at passing up. I was a really easy target for Satan and he took complete advantage of it. He used all of my weaknesses to his advantage, especially my feeling of being alone.
Just recently I took a few steps back and looked at the person I had become. I was a terrible example of someone who lived his or her life for Christ and I was not about to let it continue. I started to have long and emotional conversations with God. I began to trust him more and more and started feeling more at home. It’s really tough to get back to that place I was only a few years ago. It was so easy to lose the relationship I had with Christ but so so hard to get that relationship back. I guess that makes sense though, I mean how easy is it to go with the crowd and make the wrong choice? I guess they say “taking the easy way out” for a reason. I’m not giving in; I’m not letting myself slip away. I want an amazing relationship with Christ like I used to have. This time it’s going to be more difficult, a few more bumps in the road.. Dealing with high school struggles is going to be a lot easier then college struggles. The temptations will be greater, as will the consequences. But I’m ready; I’m not going in alone this time.
ReplyDeleteExodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.