CO part 1

I have been at camp for about 6 days now...

And
It
Is
AWESOME

For the first session i have the oldest boys (17 year olds) and they are crazy. We have late night coordinated dance raids, mission impossible prom night, techno raves with strobes, and have formed the royal order of the man bear pig club. The absolute craziness of the kids has gotten me past being tired, and the spiritual maturity they possess has led to enourmous growth in me already.

You think of a camp counselor, and you assume its a student babysitting kids. But, i get to hang out with a solid group of young men, most of which go to private school and studied philosophy and theology... and receive payment for it... ridiculous

Camp is exactly where i need to be, and i wouldn't trade where i am at for any place in the world. My motives for coming to camp were intrinsically selfish (wanted to come to camp for my own growth), but I am realizing now that God's will is being done, and that he has prepared me to step into this role. I was nervous about it all before i came, now... i just dance.

My patience is growing immensely, and my trust in God's perfect plan is being confirmed... Camp is a revolutionizing my being, and this is something i needed... that was the selfish reason i had for coming in the first place. God has the funniest ways of answering and revealing his plans for us...

anyway, i wont read back over this, so forgive the grammatical errors, and the rants...

I love all 4 of you who read this.
Tal

I always thought this was an awesome photo.

Yes

My arm is out of socket here...

So i know that i don't blog often... and for this i apologize... but i don't really have much to say right about now, or a reason to say it

as originally stated, this blog is to inform my closest entourage of my doings when there is no other means of effective communication... because i have been chatting with you guys almost daily for the past months, this site has temporarily been rendered ineffective

however i will share a few thoughts

i have been thinking a ton lately about pride and love

i think that the two are bitter and contradictory opposites that can be proved with verbiage... for instance

pride in
proud of
love of
love in

pride in something is finding value in its success... this is bad in my book because it takes a foreign object and internalizes some sort of accomplishment based upon it, pride in something demonstrates a love of something... which is also not the ultimately correct form of love. If i have a love of cake, or love of cars, or love of something... its superficial. Love of a Physical thing is the personification of "love of the world" which is stated as being misguided in the Bible. We are to be of the world, but not of it... loving things of the world is natural and unavoidable... but finding value or fulfillment in them is what is misguided. I can love cars all day long and not make any permanent progress, or find any lasting joy in it... these things are found through not being of the world, and having a heavenly pursuit.

Love in and proud of are healthier and more godly characteristics. I can be proud of my best friend for acing a test. This is mandatory for our friendship to be true in the first place, if i love him then i will be proud of him, and not seek self benefit in his action. Being "proud of "is high fiving after the test, "pride in" is thinking that you are the reason they did well in the first place.

and lastly, there is love in... which is investment related. You cannot make an emotional investment in cake... this relationship is held between people. It involves a mutual understanding of sacrificial love for one another(which is the deepest form). Investments are never easily relented by either party involved, and cannot be infiltrated by a third party without proper discernment...


Love of and pride in are not godly, and love in and proud of are... think about this... i think it might be somewhere nearing the right track, but i don't know much.

Thats my 2 sense, i hope the ramble made cents... i think i got that backwards

much love

tal