Day 24-25: If You Build It, They Will Come

Matthew 17:14-21

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied,“how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”


I'm at TITUS Camp this week. TITUS is held at HCU, and it's for teens who have a greater-than-average helping of faith, spirituality, etc. (AND it has internet!) These verses really apply to TITUS, because I have seen what the Lord can do with that mustard seed faith. Here's why. This camp involves LOTS of sitting in class/intense learning. Lots. I will be teaching Monday-Thursday from 9-12, the same kids, three hours straight. The class: Homiletics. In the afternoons they go to a series of various classes... team building, Christian service, etc. In between, they go to chapel, power hour... I could go on. In staff meeting this afternoon, the director said, "The kids are going to have lots more free time this year... tomorrow they have an hour!" :) Oh, and they have to wear dress clothes to class.


I drone on about this because when Ray came up with this idea, there were more than a few who said it would NEVER WORK. Too much for teens, they said. Too intense. Kids these days... they just don't want to work that hard. They won't spend their summer wearing ties to class.


We built it. We prayed. And they came. 


Every year we have a maxed-out crowd of amazing teens. And they LOVE it. Can't get enough. I have to believe that it's just an example of nothing being impossible. 


Do we really believe that nothing will be impossible for us? Believe it in the depths of our souls? I'm not so sure. Because if we did, if we did as a church, just imagine the things that would be happening right now. 


I am trying to change a lot of things about my life. And I mean a lot. Every day that I am studying, I see more things I need to do differently. One of those is to take bigger risks in my faith - not jump-out-of-an-airplane-type risks (although that would be cool), but diving in to things with a little bit less "sensibility" or "practicality" and a lot more faith that the Lord can do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine.