Living Life by Design

I remember the first time I volunteered to be a counselor at a teen boys camp. I thought to myself, “How tough could it be?” I loved working with teens and for some strange reason, they kind-of liked me. So, the adventure began.

The first night after dinner, we played a game of hide & seek. It really was awesome but we were in the desert so it never got below 80 degrees. By the time we were done, all the boys (I was in charge of 15) were hot, dripping with sweat and cranky. I almost died from the smell…not exaggerating! The bunkhouse was huge and had a single, locker room type shower facility. I think I would have done a better job parting the Red Sea then wrangling 15 smelly boys into a shower. There was running, sliding, screaming, whining, crying and lots of brushed extremities before we were done. I was a total wreck and the evening had just begun. 

When it was time for lights-out at 11:00 PM, the talking, laughing, crying and farting had just begun. The shenanigans finally stopped about 1:00 AM. We were all supposed to be up and ready for breakfast by 7:00 AM. I will save the rest of the story antics for another time, but by the end of our adventure many of the teens accepted Christ into their heart. Many others recommitted. 

It was Saturday afternoon when we got back to the church, and several of the boys hugged me before departing. Many of the parents were quite surprised, as was I. The next morning at church, several parents came up to me with tears in their eyes thanking me for all I did for their sons. I had to pause and think, “What had I done that was so special?” It wasn’t anything that I did…it was everything that Jesus did through me.

It was God’s blessing in my life that enabled me to make a difference in the lives of those boys. God is the source of all blessing. He loves to bless us! The psalmist repeats this over and over again in Psalm 115. Five times in quick succession he talks about how the Lord will bless us (vv.13–15).

God loves to bless. The appropriate response to blessing is gratitude: ‘we bless God, oh yes – we bless him now, we bless him always!’ (v.18, MSG). He blesses us so we in turn can bless others. During that retreat, God blessed me with strength, courage, patience and most importantly, unconditional love for those boys.

Who can you bless and show unconditional love to today?