Dwelling on the Little Things


Dwell
1: to remain for a time
2 a: to live as a resident
3 a: to keep the attention directed
b: to speak or write insistently

I spent this past weekend in the woods. We had our Fall Timber Bay camp up in Onamia, Minnesota. For those who do not know what Timber Bay is; it is a Christian organization that works with at-risk youths from our community. We work with kids who are referred to us from their social workers, their counselors and those who hear about us from their friends. I have been with them for over a year now.

We take the kids camping to remove them from their chaotic home lives and give them a break from what is usually a hard life. They get to experience an adventure with other kids from different areas and many adult counselors who really love them and care about who they are as individuals.

Honestly though, I have had my struggles. Because we encounter these teens in the midst of their difficult home lives, we do not often see the fruits of our labor. We counsel them, give them sound biblical advice about the choices they make and generally try to love on them.

The problem is that most of these teens do not have an abundance of trust. God is something unattainable and Jesus is a man they cannot necessarily relate to. To these kids, their problems are in the here and now and God is someone out there. It comes down to the proverbial question, “Where is God in all of my pain?”

Therefore, what we end up seeing is a lot of ‘admirers’ of Jesus rather than ‘followers’ of Jesus. There are moments when they can feel God’s love, and moments when we can show them Jesus as best we can as humans. Problem is, when they go back home, things return to ‘normal’ and life seems to remain the same.

As our brochure reads, “Youth who are in their early teens should still have that wonderful idea that anything in life is possible, that their bigger-than-life adventure is unfolding day-by-day. But for too many, life has grown jaded and cynical; they’re withdrawn and distrustful of adults.”

We as counselors spend a lot of time building trust in these teens, helping them to see they can depend on us to be there, without judgment, loving them despite bad choices and continuing to lead them to God’s grace and love.

Personally, I have seen girls make bad choices regarding drugs and sex, after I had spent considerable time counseling against these same things. It can be discouraging.

So, at camp this weekend, I observed the other Timber Bay groups, watching to see how kids from other areas interacted and responded to the Gospel messages. We never try to cram Jesus into their chaotic lives, choosing rather to live out Jesus to them day by day and gently chip away at the walls around their hearts.

At the end of the weekend, the kids had a chance to share how the weekend affected them and if they had any new revelations about God’s love for them. Hand after hand was raised, and all but one started their story the same; “I have been in foster care…” My heart began to break and I realized something that I had not before. These kids have all been tossed aside, by choices their parents had made or forces that had caused the kids to rebel in a way the parents could not handle. Either way, these kids spent every day in a house that was not theirs, with parents who were not theirs. Most of them act tough, until they are in a situation like camp, where adults love them and play games with them and talk to them like they are real people. Then they break down and let us all know how much they hurt sometimes.

Jesus really impressed upon my heart what we as Timber Bay counselors are up against. How can they know Me when they do not know earthly parents and unconditional love? We are up against a big challenge that takes time and patient love. These are not kids that can be tossed aside because they continue to make bad choices, or do not fall lock step in line with other Christian kids.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3.16-19

Katoikew is the Greek word used here for ‘dwell.’ It means to make one’s home, to be at home. We need to be the ones to usher these teens into the home of Christ Jesus, where they can have the unconditional and eternal love of their true Father. What a beautiful picture; I do not even have the words to describe how this verb touches my heart. Jesus wants so badly to be their God, and for them to be His children. None of these kids are throw-away kids to Him, and they are not to me either. We are the ones called to be Jesus with skin on, establishing these teens in the love of their Father, who will never send them away from home, who will never look for someone else to raise them, who will never raise a hand to them.

I am blessed beyond measure that Jesus called me to dwell in His presence, and that He entrusts me with the fragile hearts of these teens. They are never to be disregarded, or discarded. Perhaps we are not privileged to see the fruits of our labor this side of heaven, but that is not really the point anyway, is it?