Blog

by Loren Walz

Everyone experiences this from time to time - the error message on your computer that there is no disc space left to accomplish the task at hand. Annoyingly, we are forced to pause and dig through the mountain of files on our computer to rid ourselves of duplicates, or leftover files from applications we no longer run. Many computers come with a function called “disk clean” that empties our hard drive of the files we no longer need.

Similar to our computer hard drives, we too fill up our backpack of life with so much stuff that eventually it becomes impossible to do anything. We are slowed down by the weight of our backpack, it takes too much time to find any of the specific contents inside it, and eventually we reach a point of complete exhaustion where we find it hard to see Jesus and live each day for him.

But life in Jesus Christ is meant to be restful.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

An easy yoke and a light burden? Sign me up! I’m ready to empty my backpack of all the extras, clear my hard drive and make Jesus the priority. In living for Him daily, I will find rest for my soul.

But how can you do a personal “disk clean”? Camp is a great place to start! Along with the carefree week of sunshine and new friends, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about the easy yoke and light burden of Christian living through daily workshops and evening worship services. Are you ready empty your backpack at Camp Otyokwah this summer?

by Loren Walz

Keeping things organized in life is always tough. Back before computers, people had boxes upon boxes of photos printed out, and files upon files of important papers. Now, in the new age of technology, we store most things digitally, relying on our computers to keep things in order. I love that I can more easily search for documents on my computer, however, sometimes my computer gets bogged down from storing files all over the hard drive. It becomes a little scattered, and loses efficiency.

Our lives can go the same way - we get our priorities mixed up, or feel scattered by over committing ourselves. Who we are in Christ can become splintered by the clutter of our daily lives. We start to lose our peace, our joy becomes obscured by our weariness, and we lose sight of our #1 priority - God.

When it comes to computers, we can simply “defrag” them, or run a quick program to help it reorganize files - making the highest priority files the most accessible. In the same way, we need to reorganize our lives to make the most important parts the most accessible. God’s Word gives us the method: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

As we continually put God first in our lives, all of the scattered pieces are picked up by His provision and grace. Our God is a God who cares deeply about each one of His people, and this means that He cares even about the small details.

When you’re having a hard time getting your priorities in order, and the clamor of your daily life is overcoming your connection to the Father, camp is a great place to push aside distractions and focus on your priority - seeking the kingdom of God first. Join us this summer! Take a week to focus on the kingdom of God at Camp Otyokwah.

by Loren Walz

I don’t know about you, but sometimes my computer just needs a reboot to get back up to speed and start functioning properly again. You see, I’m not always good at regularly closing applications on my computer, and shutting it down at the end of each day. Often, I leave multiple applications up and running non-stop, and never shut my computer down, let alone putting it to “sleep” mode for the night.

When my computer functions like this for a few weeks, I start to find that it no longer does what I want it to do - it somehow can’t handle even simple tasks like connecting to the Internet. In the worst of situations, I have to do a hard reboot and press the power button mid-task to close all the applications, and free up the processing power so my computer can do what I want it to.

I think my experience with computer is representative of the way we tend to live our lives. Often we have so many things going on in our lives that we are worn down, too busy processing too many things. We cut our rest short, plagued each evening by the many tasks on our to-do list floating around our head into the late hours of the evening. Our priorities get jumbled up, and eventually we forget to take the opportunity to pause and connect with God the Father. Sometimes we even forget how…

As we are lost in the midst of our personal chaos, often forgetting who our Almighty Creator is, He is still with us each day. Each day He longs for us to do one thing: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10a).

It’s that simple. God’s Word says to “be still,” or shut down all the other things filling up our time, and then to “know that [He] is God,” or reconnect to Him.

Camp is a great place to be still and know that He is God. It’s a place to clear your mind of all the things that fill up each day, to reboot with fresh awareness of who God is, and reconnecting to the source of all love, strength, and mercy. Reboot your life and reconnect with God this summer at Camp Otyokwah.