I recently had the privilege of attending our church’s summer camp. It was also the second time I went as a youth leader. To be honest, it was quite an emotional week for me. I say that because it’s been six years since I myself attended the same camp as a sixteen year old boy. It was as this camp where I found a purpose. Everything started to make sense. Not only did I go as a youth leader but I also had the wonderful honor of being the drummer for the worship team. I’ve been a part of a lot of worship teams and I’ve played through countless amounts of worship sets, but playing at this years camp will go down as one of my favorites. I say that because the rest of the worship team were guys that I met at my first camp. We were all teenagers at the time, but here we were six years later, coming together for one week to lead God’s children into His presence. I was so encouraged to watch us come together in unity after all these years and minister to the next generation. The four of us have all traveled down the different paths of life, we’ve all matured in different ways, and it had easily been a couple of years since most of us had talked with each other, yet by the grace of God we were able to stay on the right path. Then it hit me. On the very last day the mic was open to anyone who wanted to give a testimony of what the Lord had done in their life. Watching those students share their testimony with the rest of the camp was a reminder of why I’m living the way I am. 

It’s really not about us. We truly are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves! One of the most beautiful things about the the Body of Christ is that we can’t accomplish anything unless we (1) abide in christ and (2) work together. It takes a lot of unselfish people to build great churches. Most of us won’t outlive the dream that sits in the deepest part of our soul. If it’s truly a dream from the Lord, I’d like to believe it’s something that will outlive us. But it takes an unselfish person to dream like this because they realize that one day they’ll have to step aside and let another person take over. I live the way I do because I realize there’s a younger generation desperately searching for someone to look up to, and who knows, maybe one of them will be the one who takes my spot when my time is up. It’s just a matter of time before we pass the baton to the next generation of leaders.