Summer
CAMP
More Than Works
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by Esther McClure, media intern >>
One evening during SMT training I heard someone say, “It’s so hard to act like a lady at Tejas.” I thought about
that for a minute and realized it’s absolutely right. The SMT work very hard all day and spend a lot of time outside. Girls
usually wear t-shirts and shorts and hardly anybody wears make-up (it all eventually sweats off anyway, so we really
don’t wear any on a regular basis). But, aside from the external, it’s even difficult to feel like a lady on the inside. We’re
usually running around on important errands, so it seems a bit unnecessary to take the time to let a gentleman open
the door for us and say “thank you” to him.
As I thought about that statement, I realized it could just as easily have been “It’s so hard to act like a Christian
in the world.” We get so busy accomplishing important things – helping build houses, feeding the hungry, donating
clothes and money to charities – that we forget the importance of acting like a Christian while we’re doing these things.
It may seem a bit unnecessary to be patient with the clumsy guy on the house-building team (his dropping the hammer
on that other guy’s hand didn’t help with the building process at all), or to be kind to the girl who tries to come back for
more food one too many times in the soup kitchen line (there’s no doubt she’s hoarding food for herself and there are
other hungry people here). But we have to step back and look at the bigger picture. We can do good deeds all day and
accomplish real earthly good, but if we don’t do our works in a Christ-honoring way, we’re not helping the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Come back to the smaller picture for a moment. It may seem unnecessary for us girls to let a guy open the
door for us or carry a heavy box when we are perfectly capable of doing these things for ourselves, but it’s important
for us to be examples, to the male SMT and to anyone else who might be around, of gracious godly ladies. People at
Tejas come from all over the world and from every sort of home-life. For some of the people here, the female SMT may
be the only true example of a godly lady they are ever exposed to. It’s important that we show them what a lady is really like. In the same way it’s important that we show the world what a Christian is really like.
At camp, we can work hard without acting like ladies (or gentlemen in the guys’ case) and actually accomplish
things that are very helpful to Camp Tejas. In the “real world,” we can do the same thing. We can do wonderful things
without showing that we are Christians and no one will know the difference. People will have houses, food, and clothing whether we provide them as Christians or just as nice people. But we may be those people’s only opportunity to
see Christ. The word Christian literally means “little Christ.” If we behave like Christ in the world, we’ll accomplish good
things not only for life right now, but for eternity as well.
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