As my summer comes to a close I can only look back in amazement. Not only have I been insanely busy but God has done so many unexpected and refreshing things. The one thing that really sticks out to me is what he did in my heart at Bethel Camp a few weeks ago. To be real honest, I was not very excited about being a camp counselor this summer. After my first year of teaching I thought needed a break from kids and from teaching even. So the summer was a welcome visitor. It came time to go and I was trying my best to psych myself up for the week. I was counseling at the first week of high school camp. It did not take long for my attitude towards the week to change. We had an amazing group of kids and my cabin of girls could not have been more incredible. I felt like I was making connections with students from the minute they arrived. We also had a rockstar staff that bonded spiritually came together as a unit really well. If you have ever been a counselor you know that a good group of kids and an incredible staff equals a seriously astounding week of camp, and I feel that is what we had.
Each day the worship was genuine and the messages were concise and spoken from the heart of God. It just seemed like things were going so well, really they were going just as God had planned them. I felt like my cabin was bonded and that we were having some great discussions about what Jesus was really doing in the lives of my girls. They were open and honest and God really opened the doors for us to have meaningful conversations.
About midweek, we were singing the song “Heart of Worship” and God opened my eyes to what he had been trying to teach me all summer. One line in the song, “longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart” spoke to me in a new way. As I was singing, I looked around and I saw all these high school students who were longing to hear from God. I realized that this is where God had called me. This place, these people, this ministry, God had called me to high school students. God had called me to Riverside and to this community, and although I had gotten bogged down in the politics and formality of being a part of a school, he was calling me to get back to the heart of his plan for me. God was calling me to bring something of worth, he was calling me to bring my best to him. I had forgotten why I love doing what I do. I had forgotten that God never called me to do a job, he never called me to work at a school, he called me “bless his heart”. The heart of my ministry is not the subject I teach, or the fact that I am even a part of this school but the heart of my ministry is that I am trying to live a life worthy of the calling I have received. The heart of my ministry is to help bring change through the lives of the students with whom I come in contact. When I looked back across the crowd of students I was refreshed, I was ready to take on the challenges of a new year. I was and I am ready to see what God has in store for Riverside this year. I am confident that he has great things for my students and for me.
It is so easy to forget that what God starts he will finish. I seem to get discouraged or even doubt my purpose but he always seems to bring me back to his heart. He picks me up and starts me from square one, he says “Cassie, I love you and I have chosen you for such a time as this. Now go!” Needless to say, the week was great. I was physically exhausted but I was spiritually uplifted and refocused. I praise God for all he is doing in my life and just for the way that he continues to draw me to himself daily.
