Picture about a hundred 1st through 3rd graders,
sitting together in a 200-person sanctuary, minus the chairs, at a 5-day kids
camp. They are loud and wiggly, many of them are from hard situations that have
already impacted them, even at such a young age. They are unruly and constantly
trying to cross lines. Amongst the bouncy children, there are a few flustered,
but determined teenagers and adults, struggling to contain the kids as the
gospel is presented on the sanctuary’s stage. A few weeks ago, I was one of
those teenagers, clad in a tie-dye t-shirt, surrounded by ten squirrely 1st and
2nd graders that were under my charge for five days. It was a
difficult camp to work in, to say the least. We counselors nicknamed it the
“herding cats week”. However, throughout all of the chaos, I learned an
important truth about my faith: keeping my eyes on Jesus.
The director of the kids camp is an amazing, God-fearing
woman who absolutely loves the camp and the kids in it. Over and over
throughout the complications of the week, she reminded us of the camp’s
mission: Kids camp provides a safe and fun environment to teach the gospel. She
constantly emphasized “the gospel” throughout the week. Despite how futile it
felt to tell unresponsive young children about Jesus, she still told us to do
EVERYTHING with the gospel in mind. We were to plant seeds through loving and
showing kindness to every child so that they would associate love with the
gospel, since the two are directly connected.
It made me start thinking. Shouldn’t everything we do
as Christians be about the gospel? I believe that we often complicate matters a
lot, trying to come up with confusing answers and explanations for our faith.
There are philosophical debates that Christians wrestle with and argue over.
Sometimes, we get so lost in the fine details of the Christian faith that we
forget our driving mission and purpose: the gospel.
I’ve been reading through 2 Corinthians and I ran across a
very profound verse. I love the NLT version of this verse, since that’s the
version that I generally use. The beginning may be a little confusing, but I’m
going to share the entire verse with you, just to provide some context…
“For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between
“Yes” and “No”. He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and
as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. For all of God’s promises
have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our
“Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascend to God for his glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (NLT)
Jesus is God’s ultimate “Yes”. He is the answer to all of
our sin problems and lost hopes and dreams. I think it’s a whole new
perspective of our faith. When people come to us, lost and confused by the
“no’s” of this world, or the “no’s” from seemingly unanswered questions, we
have the ultimate “yes”: Jesus Christ.
But, what does this mean for us? I think that it means we
need to focus everything on our ultimate “Yes”, the only way, truth, and life.
This entire concept reminds me of the numerous battle scenes
from the movies based off of the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.
Before the huge battle in The Lion, the Witch, and the Waredrobe,
just as the orchestral score prepares to bring in the intense percussion
features and the army is lined up in resigned silence, Peter, the leader of the
army, lifts his sword and yells, “for Narnia, and for Aslan!”
What are we yelling before we charge into the battles of
this cursed world?
Many of us are tempted to yell things like,
“For my emotional experiences with God!”
“For avoiding hell!”
“For the literal 7-day theory!”
“For the doctrine of my church!”
All of these things are great, but they should never be our
central focus. John 14:6 is a very famous verse that puts this well.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to
the Father except through me.”
No one can come to the Father except through Christ, so
let’s make our battle cry,
“For Jesus.”
He is, after all, our savior, solution, and purpose, and as
my pastor says, “the epicenter of our faith.”
Despite the complications of our human nature and the world around
us, we need to always remember WHY we’re fighting.
Before a particularly difficult day at kids camp, all of us
counselors sang a beautiful hymn that sums up this concept perfectly. To end
this post, I’m going to quote its chorus:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."
~ Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel
