Her Best Week

"This has been the best week of my entire life"--These were the sincere words written on the back of a picture one of my campers drew for me this week. When I read those words I wanted to be alone down the hall, press my back against the wall, slide down to the ground and cry. My heart was breaking. Who am I Lord that You should choose me to be a part of some one's 'best week'? In that moment I felt so unworthy, yet so very, very blessed. This girl was twelve years old and she was a new believer, but I could see in her that want to grow deeper, to push past surface Christianity. However, there was something holding her back: fear. Fear does it to us all, huh? It holds us back from that dive; from letting go and fighting for what we want or know is right. Her family is in complete chaos right now, and this little girl looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, "I can't do it; I'm too scared. It's just too hard." Her parents were split up, and neither supported her in her faith or believed in God. Her sister, only 14, has been running away from home, smoking and suicidal. Her 15 year old cousin is pregnant by a man in his 20s. Another of her cousins recently raped by a family member and her grandfather passed away.

FEAR.

She ran to me, wrapped her arms around me, and held on as she cried... what in the world do I say? What do I do? God please...I need You. We sat and talked. I looked her in the eyes and told her that she WILL get through this, and that we have no idea what the future looks like but that Christ promises He will be there every step of the way. Yet all she could say was still, "It's so hard to be a Christian alone." I wanted to make everything better for her. I wished in that moment I could say go home and everything would be better, but I couldn't. I wanted to make things easy for her, so that she wouldn't cry, so that she wouldn't hurt. Then I remembered the Scripture verse that I clung to when I felt all alone and things were so hard: Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I told her that NO MATTER WHAT; no matter how hard, how scary, how alone, how painful things are, we CAN do all things with the power that Jesus gives us. Our God is a God of possibilities.
After much time of talking and prayer, we took a deep breath and she went back to her room... and I cried. I wanted to fall to my knees and beg Christ to work a miracle in her family. I wanted to plead and plead and plead until her Daddy gave in and believed. I felt like the only way she would make it was if God changed her family now. Jon, one of my new and very dear friends, came and sat with me and prayed for me. As I tried to clear my mind aloud with him, I realized that just as I told this girl to trust in Christ, I had to trust in Him as well, that He would take care of her. While praying for her family's salvation is good, I was praying for their salvation because in that moment I believed that was the only thing that would help this little girl. Our salvation does not depend upon the salvation of someone else! All we need is Christ, and if we hang on to him, we will make it. End of story. She is gone home now, back into the same world...but now with a new strength; a new hope. I may never see her again, but I trust in Jesus that she will make it; she WILL be okay.