Faith Like a Child

This summer I am working at Park River Bible Camp This week here in Park River is Jubilee Camp. This is a week where people with physical and mental handicaps come out to camp for a few days to experience the goodness of God in a very spectacular way. As I write this we are on our second night of three and already I have been blessed beyond measure.

On Sunday night we opened with a bluegrass/southern gospel concert with the Freedom Band, who came all the way from Canada (yeah Canada), and rocked our socks off. The joy and enthusiasm that was emitted from the crowd during most of, and after all of the songs was incredible. The band fed off of it and we worshiped our God that night with more joy than one could express. The next day was spent doing various activities around camp such as crafts, fishing, a hayride, swimming, and therapeutic recreation and with great willingness and joy, once again, the campers participated. For most of thesecampers life here at camp is one of the highlights of their year. When I look into their face and see them smiling and singing with so much life, despite not knowing the words, it brings joy and love flooding into my heart.

God has blessed us with great campers this week and great staff to work with them. I don’t write this simply to tell you about the great week of camp that we are having, but to encourage you to take a look into your life this week and ask yourself what your faith is like. Is it like the faith of a child, which Jesus says is all we need? Or is it cluttered and self-conscious and filled with worry, anger, fear, and sin? You know God does not look for faith that does not seek Him. Is your faith in Him truly causing you to seek Him or has it become so null and void in your life that you wonder if it still exists? I look at each of these campers and wonder what it would be like to have their faith or even just their lives. Not one of them can completely take care of themselves and are entrusted into the care of another. They know no other way. That is such a great picture of what our lives in Christ ought to be like, where we are completely entrusted into the care of our God in heaven. There is not one of us who can take care of ourselves; no matter how much we try, or think that we can, we cannot be self-sufficient. We may think that we can be for awhile, but when our lives are measured up against the Word of God and how things ought to be, we will quickly see that we are not. Maybe all it will take though is that first broken relationship or a constant anger in your life. Those things too quickly remind us that we cannot take care of ourselves and life around us; that we need to entrust ourselves with complete and childlike faith into the loving hands of our God.

And so, as the Jubilee campers continue to come here year after year and express their joy in Christ and hope in Him let’s learn a lesson from them and express our joy in Him as well.

by Justin Kantonen
originally posted July 2008