Sound Investments

I got back last weekend from an amazing week at Bible Camp. It honestly is the highlight of my year, for so many reasons. The biggest reason is, surrounded by friends and church family, we get to watch God at work. I know we always have that opportunity, but at camp it is easier to focus on it, I think, or maybe we are just more attuned to Him. I don’t know, but I do know that I always come away feeling that if the campers learned only half as much as I did, then they had to have grown in big ways.

            While I was gone, my email inbox filled up with a week’s worth of emailed devotionals that I am signed up for. I decided to catch up this morning, and start reading the ones I missed last week when I didn’t have internet access or cell signal at camp. The first one, from last Monday, was about friendship, which immediately caught my attention.

            For years I felt guilty walking around with the last name “Friend” because I didn’t feel like I was a good enough friend to claim the name. I never had many close friends my age, I can be fairly quiet, and I live a crazy schedule. As I have grown older and (hopefully) wiser, I realize there is more to being a friend than liking to talk or being the same age as someone. Of my friends who know me best, maybe 2 of them are within 3 years of me (and one of those is my sister). Does that make us less of friends? Absolutely not.

            So, back to the emailed devo. It closed with some challenges including: Make a specific plan this week to invest in the life of a friend.  That one is my favorite because I love how God works! On Monday that challenge hit my inbox (though I didn’t read it for another week), and then on Thursday this happens: We were gathered up by cabin/class, so my cabin was combined with another, and we sat around a campfire. Our mission was to go around the circle and every person was to say something positive about every other person in the circle. It was so cool and encouraging to hear what people saw in each other, and yes, there were a fair amount of tears shed as we got emotionally vulnerable with each other. Even the counselors had to take a turn, so I got to listen as these precious teen girls and two other adults said nice things about me. I wrote down most of what was said and will treasure those words always, but one that has resounded in my heart is, “you invest in people.” Over the next couple days, I had a few other people tell me that same thing. I doubt they have any idea how much those words mean to me, a former painfully-shy kid who still has trouble opening up quickly to people.

The whole point of this blog is to talk about changing the world by living like Jesus. And that is exactly what these people did with their sweet encouraging words to me. I don’t feel guilty anymore about claiming the name Friend, even though I may not always feel like the best friend out there with my busy lifestyle. I know now that friends come in all shapes and sizes. The important part is that you love them, and live life with them. Even if it feels like it takes an act of Congress to get together and hang out.  Because when we invest, we get something beautiful out of it. And sometimes what we get back is better than what we put in. Because God is good. All the time.