I just got back from camp … and it was an epic week! No exaggeration when I say it was the best camp in my time at Saddleback so far. Epic, life-changing and fun for everyone.
OK, maybe not everyone.
I just got off the phone with a discouraged parent, just out of a meeting with a volunteer who messed up and have got a couple of other trouble spots simmering, too. Now, it shouldn’t surprise me – I’ve been doing this long enough to know the the trustees are sometimes going to be more concerned about the condition of the church van than the condition of teenagers hearts. Or that a parent isn’t looking at summer camp overall and thrilled with all that God did, she is looking at her daughter specifically and the mess that is still happening there.
Here’s what I’m reminding myself of today: big successes are immediately followed by big challenges. Huge wins usually create aftershock and some of your followers become fallout in the days after an event. We see it in the Bible with Elijah (I Kings 19) and Jonah (Jonah 4) and we feel it as youth workers after camp. I’m running on fumes from camp but preparing to get hit by problems or a rogue wave of my own self-pity.
Just a reminder to be prepared for the low, my friends!
JG
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