This week I am at Camp Areopagus, enjoying the company of great Christian friends, counseling young people, and getting away from my computer screen for a while. I look forward to camp every year, more than any other time.
Even more than Christmas.
I became a Christian at that camp (back when it was Camp Caudle) on June 23, 2000. That was my first year, which means well over half my life has been in the service of my King. I don’t take this life lightly. I have countless memories from the various Camp weeks over the years, but that first one will always be special. So many of those sights and sounds are seared into my memory, never to leave, Lord willing. I am thankful daily that I was taught the Word of God, and how blessed I am to have enjoyed twenty-fuve years in God’s good graces.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…
(Hebrews 12:1-2a)
I hope to have at least another quarter-century to serve as a Christian in this world; maybe I’ll get another 25 years after that, who knows (God knows). Whatever the future holds, I know this: I will keep running the race set before me, keep looking to Jesus as the captain of my salvation, and keep pressing to the mark.
What about you?
~ Matthew