Nate Lanzon- Mesa Jr. High Pastor

There is a common term in youth ministry known as the “camp high.”  If you’ve ever experienced the incredible life change that often occurs at a summer camp, Men’s Challenge or a Girlfriend’s retreat, then you’ve probably experienced the camp high.  It’s when your life gets flipped and turned upside down (much like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and you suddenly feel incredibly close to God.  Things start to make more sense and you’re able to recognize God’s movement in your life more than ever before.  It’s an amazing feeling, yet it can be easily lost…

Central’s Jr. High ministry went to summer camp in Prescott, AZ almost three weeks ago now, and it was amazing for me to see how God was moving in the lives of students, leaders, and myself.  Oh, I definitely had the camp high goin on.  Camp wasn’t even a full five days, yet so many of us seemed to connect with God on whole new level!  However, as soon as I got home I had over 160 emails to respond to, I had to go buy supplies for the next Jr. High event happening two days later, and I had a massive pile of laundry to do…talk about a buzz-kill. No wonder it’s so easy to disconnect with God!  We start to come down off of our camp high without even realizing it.

In the book of Luke (Luke 10:38-42) we see this same disconnect take place.  Jesus comes over to hang out with Mary and Martha.  He takes a seat and starts chatting with Mary, while Martha is losing her mind trying to do chores around the house.  Notice- she wasn’t doing anything bad… she was most likely cooking, cleaning and making the house look presentable.  Yet she had Jesus himself hanging out right there in the living room and she was too distracted to connect with him!  Without realizing it, we often do the exact same thing.  We load our plates up with all sorts of obligations, responsibilities and commitments, none of which are wrong or bad.  The problem is that we allow all of these little things to get in the way of a solid connection with God.

At camp I was removed from most of my distractions and there were specific times throughout the day carved out for us to spend with God.  I’ve come to realize that our day-to-day needs to look more like  summer camp (minus the food fights and all-nighters).  I once read a quote that said, “You’re never going to have time to do anything.  If you want time, you must make it.”  Friends, we are never going to just have time to slow down and connect with God, we must make it.