At Maywood Christian Camp, clean up time comes after breakfast every morning. The children are to make their beds and work with their counselors to get their cabins in tip top shape before Bible class. The girls will often make up their beds before we go down the hill for breakfast. That way they have a jump start on everything that has to be done. Clothes are put outside to dry if needed-- or in the dirty clothes bag if they are not wet. Candy wrappers still on the floor from last night's snack are thrown away. Shoes are lined up straight under the bed. Brushes and bath stuff go back in bags or boxes or where ever they are supposed to go. Our part of cleaning the bath house is done and the cabin gets swept out.
Cabin clean up is an important part of the camp experience. There are many reasons for that; but I won't go into them right now. Everyone does their part. Believe it or not, the girls are usually pretty responsible about this. Some of them do a better job at camp than they do at home. At least, I have heard many a parent make that comment!
During Bible class, inspectors come to each cabin to check out our clean up job. Every cabin is given a score. The cabin with the highest score for the boys and the girls are both are rewarded with a big bag of candy for the children to share. Sometimes there are ties, and tie scores are honored. So it may be two or three groups from each side that wins candy. Our girls take great pride in their scores. If we don't score a 100 they want to know why so that they can make sure that problem is taken care of the next day. It really is a pretty big deal!
On Saturday morning, everyone gathered all their belongings and packed up to go home. One little girl was a little bit slower at tackling this chore than some of the others were. So I encouraged her to get her stuff together. When I looked under her bunk, I saw all kinds of things. Someone had to go under there and get them. This sweet child began to pull out bags of chips and cookies, some empty and others with food still in them. She found another pair of shoes and other items that had been meant for her to keep and take home. She did all this work without complaining. Part of the things belonged to the girl who slept on the top bunk above her; but she had already gone.
Her bunk was not the only one that had trash under it. All the bunks did. You see, as the girls sit on their beds to visit with one another, things get pushed out of the way. Every bunk is against the wall, so it is very easy for something to fall back behind the bed and onto the floor. Hence, the effort of special cleaning before everyone goes home. Sometimes the girls find items they thought had been lost.
OK back to the story. As my young friend was pulling out all those things from under her bed, she said "Wow, Mrs. Robin - I don't see how we got 100 every day with all this stuff everywhere." I laughed and said, "Well, I don't either. I guess everything was back so far the inspectors couldn't see it." It didn't take her long to get everything pulled out. I helped her fold her bedding up and we got her belongings together and ready to go home with her.
I have thought about her comment ever since she said it. You know, sometimes our lives are kind of like that. We only show our best to the world. All the trash in our lives gets pushed to the back. We cover up a lot of stuff. We try so hard sometimes to appear like we have it all together. We want people to think our lives are in order. We don't want anyone to know all the junk going on inside our hearts -- our minds -- our lives. Maybe it is sin we are trying to hide from the outside world. We don't want others to know our weaknesses. If we keep them all a secret -- if no one knows what's going behind the façade then it's like we think we are OK. If no one knows - then no one is hurt. If no one knows, then maybe God won't notice either. Where in the world does that come from? It is amazing sometimes how easily we fool ourselves.
When we stop and think about though, we aren't fooling ourselves. We know we can't hide anything from God. We know that our Lord and Savior will judge every secret work. God tells us not to deceive ourselves. He will not be mocked. He also tells us "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall." The good standing we are showing to the world will mean nothing at all on judgment day, not unless we clean out our trash. And sometimes to do that we have to dig pretty deep. I mean maybe we pushed that stuff way to the back of our minds and put all kinds of stuff in front of it. Maybe there are loose ends we need to tie up -- kind of like the half empty bag of chips we found. Maybe there is a relationship we need to mend or a bad habit we need to kick.
We definitely have to stop trying to fool ourselves and others. We must not try to fool God. He knows about every single item of trash. Clean it out, folks. Stop hiding. Make God first. If we need help with our trash, I am sure someone can pray for us and with us. A faithful friend can help you find the help you need. Just throw the trash out. One of the wonderful things about God is that He lets us empty our trash can. And He helps us keep it empty.
What else do we hide besides our sin? How about our trials and our burdens? This old world is tough. The devil will knock us around. Sometimes life just happens and people end up being hurt in the process. Sometimes we might need a shoulder to cry on - or we might need to ask a special friend to pray for us. This is why the church is called the "family of God."
We share because we are all one family. We care for the same reason. We should be able to know that we can turn to our Chrstian friends - our church family.
Pride could be one reason we are unwilling to share. Sometimes we are afraid to be open enough with others because we don't want them to think we are weak and can't handle our problems on our own. We enjoy pretending everything is OK. Then there are times when we might keep quiet because we don't want to burden others with our troubles. We know how busy everyone is. We know our friends may be struggling wtih something too and they need our support -- so we listen quietly and go on our way never sharing our needs with others.
Don't let these things get in the way of sharing our burdens- of asking for help. None of us ever have it "all together" as others may think. Every one of us has a cross we must carry. No one can help us bear with our burden if we if we don't let it be known that we have one. No, we don't have to tell the whole world. We don't even have to tell our entire church family what we might be struggling with. However, I have discovered very loving, and understanding folks in the body of Christ. If you share your junk -- then someone will help you get rid of it.
It doesn't matter if we don't score 100 every day. Hardly anyone else does either. Many times we can't do it without help from others. Our good God and His family -- will help us aim for the highest score. Truth be told - I don't think we ever get 100 on our own. We know it is God who sees us through our sadness and troubles.
As for the sin in our lives, - well none of us is perfect. We would never get 100 if Jesus wasn't on our side. If we are faithful and obedient Christians -- then he grades on a pretty easy scale. With Jesus on our side -- because He loves us and died for us and has washed away our sins; if we are striving to do our best every day then He ups our score for us. If we don't try to hide our trash and keep our priorities straight - then with Jesus guiding us through - we really can get 100 every day!
Christ above all things,
Robin
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