Yesterday we finished teaching at camp for the year. *Sigh* It was a good time and we shot a bottle of pop over the chapel roof. (The pop bottle was part of a game/demonstration on the dangers of bottling up your anger. We, uh, made our point.) Dan and I will be back next year. In the final lesson, we discussed how tough it is to carry out the mission God has given us in a world that hates us. We called it ‘outcast living’.
We do not fit in. We will be misunderstood. Period. End of discussion. Jesus experienced the same thing and promised it for us.
(John 15:19) If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
(John 17:14-16) I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
This is hard to take. We naturally crave being liked and accepted. I know it’s going to happen, but when it does, I get defensive and angry. Truth is, now GOD accepts me, and I cannot be accepted BOTH by God and the world. It’s one or the other.
The summary of our camp lessons is that each of us is chosen and uniquely gifted by God to serve Him and carry His gospel. In spite of our weaknesses, God asks, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Will you, will I, jump up and say “Here am I, send me!” or will I, will we, walk on by?