The last weekend in May, both the NC and AL SOUL staffs got together for our last bit of training together. While we were there we went over how to work well together (given our personality differences), how to work well with the kids, what a good game looks like, even how to make sure the kids are getting along and growing alongside one another. Personally, I love training because we all get to hang out and goof off a bit. Don't get me wrong, the whole staff can settle down and get serious when we need to, but otherwise we just have a good time.
While we were there, Sarah Vestal came to speak to us. What she shared really hit home for me. The message that she shared with us was about foolishness. Let me start by saying, there is a difference between foolishness for the world, and foolishness for God. If you are foolish for the world, bad things happen. If you are foolish for God, amazing things can happen.
The first example we looked at was that of Zacchaeus. If you aren't familiar with the story, you can find it in Luke 19:1-10. It's about a tax collector, of rather short stature, who wanted so badly to see Jesus that he climbed a tree along the road just to get a glimpse of him. Let's take a second and break that down. Imagine a man, professionally dressed (in the profession of tax collecting, so that would be a suit and tie?) climbing a tree. And only climbing the tree to catch a glimpse of a man who many deemed a lunatic and a heretic. I don't know about you, but I don't think I would do something like that. I would be more concerned with messing up my clothes, or looking foolish in front of all of those people (who already didn't like him, by the way).
But guess what came out of Zacchaeus's foolishness? - salvation, a life changing experience of meeting our Lord in person and inviting him into his house. When Jesus called Zacchaeus out of that tree he wasn't worried about what the crowds standing there thought. He was elated because the savior of the world expressed an interest in him personally. That moment changed his life! After talking to the Lord he was no longer the same person. He stopped overtaxing the people, and even gave money back to them. Something Sarah pointed out, that I had never thought about before, is that Zacchaeus probably took his kids and his grandkids back to that tree, telling them, "This is where I met Jesus!" It's so easy to forget that the people in these stories were real people, and that their lives continued after we leave them.
Sarah presented us with a question, "Are you willing to sacrifice your reputation for Jesus?"
Being totally honest, I would say that most of the time I am probably not. Which is an answer that I don't like, and that I don't really want to share, but I think it should be said. I don't want to give anyone the idea that I am above anyone else, or that I have everything figured out. I am still growing in my relationship with God just like we all are trying to. In fact, I can think of several people, who I look to as having more figured out than myself. Some of them are on SOUL this summer. But what matters is that I, and you, keep pushing ourselves to get closer to our creator.
SOUL, being kind-of like a summer camp, definitely allows opportunity for the staff to be foolish for Jesus. We are interacting with kids all day, playing games, eating meals, having a good time. But it is a lot harder to be foolish for Christ in front of your peers. In front of people who you respect and want to respect you. Look at Noah, building an ark when there was not even rain, and King David, dancing naked in the street in front of his people. Great things happen when we are foolish for God. Because when we are foolish for Him, that is when we truly let him have full control of our lives.
Are you foolish enough?
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