This weekend, I return to Camp Greystone for the 100th year celebration of the founding of camp. I served as a counselor at Greystone from 1994-1999, so this reunion gathers together friends of mine I haven’t seen in 25 years.
Do you find yourself nervous to go to reunions? Most people I’ve talked to go to reunions with as much excitement as dread. We all worry about how we look. We review our accomplishments and wonder if we’ve done enough. We don’t know what others think about us. Some of us feel like failures and realize many of our dreams never came true and people somehow know this and judge us for it.
We are so hard on ourselves!
But guess what? Joy of joys! I thought I’d be overcome with the same old insecurities as I journey to camp, but this time, I’ve grown. Praise God! I’ve grown! Instead of worrying about all of the above things, I shifted my mindset to think about others. I began to pray for those coming. I think about how to serve them, not myself.
Imagine walking into reunion in order to ease the insecurity of others. Imagine speaking words of encouragement and blessing over people. Imagine God sending you there as an agent of blessing and proclamation.
Everything changes when you take your eyes off of yourself. Instead of thinking, “What will everyone think about me?” try asking, “Who here can I encourage and get to know better?”
PS: It’s a “tech free weekend”, so I might double post on Sunday night. You know I write my blog every day, but this time it might be on good old fashioned pen and paper in my journal during the rest hour in my camp cabin!