No Tired Like Camp Tired
For those of you reading this who have been to a Bible camp as adults there is no explanation for the title needed. For those of you who have not had that experience, you are just going to have to trust me: 4-5 days attempting to sleep on thin, sometimes plastic covered, twin-size bunk beds in a space shared with 10-20 campers, some of whom sleepwalk, sleeptalk, snore, or just plain old stay up talking, does not make for a restful week.
It does make for a week of tremendous spiritual growth, relationship building, and lots of fun stories and memories!
This year at our camp, the Wednesday night speaker was Matt Miller. He did a tremendous job sharing God’s word with our campers and their families who visited for family night. One point in particular stuck with me as I was 4 days into “camp tired.”
Matt made the point that as Jesus faced the cross, He was already tired: emotionally, mentally, and physically weary. Jesus had just had one of His 12 betray Him into the hands of the Jews. Even though He knew that it was going to happen, it had to hurt Him. In the middle of His last supper with His special apostles, they again brought up which of them was the greatest (Luke 22). That had to exhaust Jesus mentally as He had already gone over these ideas with them so many times.
Then consider, that as He took the beatings, the questioning, and the spiteful ridicule, Jesus had had no sleep. He went straight from the supper to the Garden where He prayed both for His disciples then and now (John 17). From the Garden, He was taken in for questioning by the mob led by Judas and questioned no fewer than 3 times, facing false accusations and more humiliation. No sleep; truly no rest for the weary.
So, the next time you get tired in your efforts to work for Christ, whether it is at camp, a VBS, a mission trip, or just in your everyday life, stop and consider what Jesus did for you despite being so very weary. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us…” (1 John 3:16a).
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
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AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
