"unless you change and become like children..."

Jesus says these words in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 18. He finishes the statement, "...you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me ." I had the opportunity of spending a whole week with children, 5th & 6th graders (10-12 yr olds), at church camp. What an experience!

For me, it was a reminder of God's love. So many children have stories of parents' divorcing, and be abandoned by one or the other parent, but yet these kids had a wonderful time praising God and enjoying their time at camp. It was a reminder to me, of how humble I need to be before God and other people.

It's so easy for me to think of reasons why I'm better than somebody else, and that makes me feel good about myself. But Jesus challenges us, the Gospel challenges us, the Bible challenges us, to be humble. In Matthew 18, Jesus forgets what is socially acceptable and interacts with a child. He then tells all of the "important" adults that this is God's chosen. Jesus chooses NOT the biggest, NOT the strongest, NOT the smartest, NOT the highest class; but Jesus chooses the little, innocent child, and says that this is who I choose to be in my kingdom. This is who I choose to participate in a new way of living that is marked by self-giving love to others, instead of love of self taking-from-others.

God makes this point in other places, like the annointing of David in 1 Samuel 16. God tells Samuel to annoint, not the first-born, not the biggest, and not the strongest, but the smallest and youngest...little David.

This is a reminder to me, that if I try to look at my own accomplishments, and how I am "better" than other people to feel good about myself, then I'm missing out on the kingdom of heaven. Rather, what reading these scriptures, and ministering among kids at church camp has reminded me is that I am nothing without God's sustaining, redeeming love. And at my worst and weakest, God can make me good and strong--not to be better than or dominate other people, but in order to love people as God has loved me.

Our example of love is Jesus Christ, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:6-11, emphasis mine)

First Fly Fishing Trip, etc.

For Memorial Day weekend Shelley (my wife) and I headed to Table Rock Lake the Wednesday before the holiday. Thursday was the big day, where my friend Jim taught me to fly fish for trout near the Shepherd of the Hills hatchery at Taneycomo, just below the Table Rock Dam. I had a fun time learning that day, and Jim caught two nice looking rainbow trout. I'm glad Jim was patient with me and kinda let me learn on my own. It was frustrating because I could get the line to go where I wanted it, and get it to drift downstream the way it needed to. So the first day I was shut out. So I decided to go back on Friday morning, this time without Jim. And after just 20-30 min. of being in the water I caught my first rainbow trout (sorry there's no picture). It was a great feeling because it happened on a cast that was perfect (for me). Usually, you don't have to cast just right as long as you get the drift right, but everything went swell, and sure enough I hooked one and kept him on the line until I could get him in. I fished for probably 3 more hours that day and never could catch another one. I think it was becaue early in the morning the sky was cloudy and the air was foggy so the fish couldn't see my line well. Then as the day went on the sun shone brightly on my line that was too heavy. I was using 5x tippet, and I guess on a day like that I should use something smaller. But, the whole trip was worth it, just to catch that one fish, and now I'm ready to go again in another week or so. We had fun the rest of the weekend too. We visited our new church in Columbia and met some of the students in the youth group I'll be serving. That was an exciting experience too. A neat feeling came over me that assured me this is where God is calling me to serve. I'm excited, but my first official day isn't till July 1st. So we'll keep praying and packing as we get ready to move.