A couple weeks ago I had the profound joy of joining 250 middle school campers at Lifeteen’s Camp Hidden Lake. What an awesome time. First, I was blown away by the staff’s goodness and generosity and total willingness to serve. Then, I was really blown away by watching these kids put there hearts into praising God through song.
From the very first song of the first night they were singing. We sang Good Good Father, a bonafide classic now if you ask anyone who played Christian music in 2016. GGF was on constant repeat. But I still love it. The message is so true and needs repeating. God is a Good Father who would never give me a snake when I asked for a fish or a stone when I asked for Bread. It’s Who He… You know.
Ok, we sang all week and I loved every second of it. The moments of adoration were the best as they usually are. I love praising God in the Eucharist, but when other people do it with me, it makes me even happier.
The adoration on Friday will not leave my mind. It was so incredible. God was most definitely moving in these kids. We played three songs throughout the whole 30 something minutes. O Come to the Altar by Elevation, Tremble by Mosaic MSC, and Reckless Love by Cory Asbury.
I watched as Fr. Adam walked around with Jesus in the monstrance allowing each person to have a really close up face to face encounter with Jesus as we sang Tremble, which we played for so long because God had some things he wanted me to pray while I strummed the chords.
I said something along the lines of:
“Jesus you are real. you are truly before us. You are the same Jesus who walked the earth so long ago. You looked up at the same stars, saw the same moon and Sun, you taught, you laughed, you chose 12 disciples, ordinary men, to learn from you.
You had a mission Lord. You Taught all who would listen and you healed the people that came to you. You made the deaf hear, the mute speak, and the blind see. You cured diseases and helped those could not walk, walk again.
And you did what you did on the Cross and rose again. You spent more time with your apostles and before you left, you made sure your 12 apostles knew what to do. Because you wanted them to continue your mission, your work.
You wanted to continue to teach us, to love us, and to heal us Lord through your Church. You want to Heal us today Lord. Even now you want to heal us.
And we are broken. We have darkness in our lives Lord. We want to love like you love. We want to know you more, but we are broken, we are hurting, we have anxieties, we have fear, Jesus. We have Darkness.
But you, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble.”
I went on and said more about this theme of the pains and burdens we face each day and Jesus’s great desire to help us carry our loads and how His Love helps us bear life’s sufferings. And His great desire to bring us healing. This was a great lead into the song Tremble, which if you haven’t heard or played before, I would suggest you do.
It was sooo cool! Watching the kids stretch their arms out toward the Host before us. Hearing them sing! Amazing.
I love hearing those I lead in worship sing. Sometimes I pull back from the mic and listen to them. To me, it makes my job much more enjoyable. And I am not saying that it’s all about me. I guess I am just saying that they are the lead singers and I love having my front row seat.
Thanks again to everyone who was there that week. The kids, the Youth ministers, core members, Missionaries, and Lifeteen Hidden Lake Staff. I loved it and hope to have a chance to do it again.