The Spiritually Busted Need God Too...

Today as a small part of the service they did a small segment on a kids' camp that our church supports.  It's not just any kids' camp.  It's "Royal Family Kids' Camp".  It's a camp that takes children who have been abused and neglected, and bringing in leaders that will love on them, encourage them and spend a whole week focusing on just them.  This year, Nike is donating a pair of shoes to every kid who comes.  They have a birthday party every year for the kids, since many of them never have had a birthday party.  They do things to show the kids that even though sometimes our families don't treat us like they should, they are part of a bigger family... a ROYAL family.  They have a Father who loves them with everything inside of Him, that would never leave them and would never hurt them.  They have brothers and sisters, some who are going through the same things, and some who God puts in their path to encourage them.  It takes children who quite possibly have never felt loved, and gives them one week focused on LOVE.  The concept is amazing.

While I was watching the video they played, I was thinking about how we are all, at some level, at some point in our lives, in need of the realization that is brought to those kids.  That camp is what church is supposed to be like.  It's supposed to be a spiritual hospital for the hurting.  A place that people can come, no matter their walk of life or their situation, to receive that royal family love and belonging.  I can honestly say I had that.  If it weren’t for my church (Cornerstone woot woot) playing the role in my life that it did when I was young, I wouldn't have chosen the same path I did.  I was a very very broken child from a very broken family that found a sense of family in my church.  My church wasn't perfect, but as in any functioning family, it was a matter of letting the good outweigh the bad.  The good was, my church took me, a child that had no stability in my life, and showed me a loving God that wanted me and believed in me when no one else did... and a church family that was made up of people (and therefore was flawed and imperfect) who invited me into their families.  I can honestly say that even though it hurt when my Mom left and things were bad with my Dad, I never felt without a family, because of my church family.  God used the church to show me that He WAS there, He WAS present, and He hadn't forgotten me.  That's how it should be.  That's why I have the heart for ministering to young people that I do.  Because I want to be someone God uses in a kids life, whether they realize it that day, a year later, or 20 years later; someone God uses to show them that in their darkest hour He sent someone to show them that He was there, and they weren't forgotten.  I want to be what Rick and Nicole, and the Garretts, and the Rayons, and the Clores, and the Pitcocks were to me.  Even though my blood family wasn't reliable, I never felt empty and alone.

During the video, a song was playing that I've never heard before.  A song that apparently many people know, but it was new to me.  I found the words to be so profound (though quite simple), and I decided it should be the anthem of the church... THIS should be the message of who God is that we bring to the world.  Not a message of a God that you have to dress up for, or a God who spends all his time frowning down on us.

"I will change your name

You shall no longer be

Wounded

Outcast

Lonely or afraid

I will change your name

Your new name shall be

Confidence, Joyfulness

Overcoming One

Faithfulness

Friend of God

One who seeks My face”