Humbled and Amazed

Anzac Day was and still is a day we remember those young men who gave their lives for their country in Gallipoli during World War I. But for me the Anzac Day Weekend 2010, reminded me of a greater battle that was fought which lead to the death of one Man and through His death we are saved. What a glorious victory it was, Amen.

The long weekend began with another awesome night with my teens fellowship at church. My first realisation came as I sat in a room with 11 teens and just me as my co-leader was absent due to an operation on the same day. Being the ambitious guy I am, I tried to facilitate discussion all by myself and subsequently failed. As a result I opted to merge with some other group and together with some other leaders we went through the rest of the Bible Study.

So that was the beginning of my long weekend. it was at that point I was reminded how inadequate I was and that without the Lord our God's strength I would not be able to achieve the things I have.

#1 Man is inadequate without God

So here comes Saturday morning, off to our 5 congregation church camp. Originally the plan was to only stay the night and leave on Sunday afternoon. In addition to that my mindset was that I was only there to babysit. Definitely a wrong mindset to be in when going on a family camp where everyone is there to listen to awesome sermons given by awesome speakers. So during looking after the kids I had my second realisation. I felt a growing hunger not for physical food but for God's word. And I felt as if God was telling me that Sunday school was not what he wanted me to do.

#2 Man should not be fed on physical food alone, but rather should be fed spiritual food (ie. the word of God)

Hence, here I was a man hungry for God's Word and tossing up whether I should stay at camp longer. It was when I was talking to one of my brothers who mentioned how shocking it was to see the lack of attendance from our youth group that it really got me thinking. What would I get more out of - going home and bumming until monday or staying and getting to hear God's word?

So many thoughts went through my mind when deciding whether to stay on or not. One thought that stood out was this

"Why would I want to forego a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear some of the best speakers preach on Ephesians? Yes I may be able to go home and eat some more delicious food compared to the camp food but that really doesnt satisfy my growing hunger for spiritual food."


To cut things short I stayed and I am very glad I did because the talk this morning was awesome. Talking about family and how Christian men and women should treat each other in accordance to God's Word. That Men should focus only on being loving to their wives and that wives should focus only on being submissive to their husbands. It was awesome and I love it. I felt that I had made the right choice to stay.

By about 10:30 today I left the campsite early because I had previously arrange to meet up with one of friends. Before I left one of the organisers said to me "Why you leaving so early? Arent you going to stay and clean up?" As I was driving down the Mountain I almost felt like I was using the meeting as an excuse to avoid cleaning. And soon enough I knew God had plans. It was almost like the story of Jonah where God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh but Jonah ran in the opposite direction only to be brought back to Nineveh. So for me my JONAH experience began with a text message saying that the meeting needed to be postponed and a conviction that I should turn around and head back to the camp.

#3 God is the creator. He is in control and has planned out all even before we were born.

I think for me this weekend sure has been quite a journey. I have been humbled and reminded that its never about "ME" but about God. And that God always has a plan for each of us and no matter how we may think we are doing the right thing. If its wrong, God will guide you towards the right direction if we allow Him to work in us through the Holy Spirit. In this case I think God's purpose was to show me the beauty of being part of God's family. That the experience we have at camp is a slight glimpse of the future to come and that we should be encouraged to keep persevering and running hard for Christ until the day He returns. Amen.