The Desk of a Summer Camp Director in May – EV Director, Tom Bowyer

A blue Hydro Flask with half of this morning’s coffee disappearing quickly. A stack of last year’s schedules underneath a stack of this year’s schedules – work week, staff training week, summer sessions, meal plans. Two commentaries on the book of Matthew. Our Morning Devo Manual, camper journals, the Cabin Time Manual, the Staff Manual. Last year’s staff training notes. The beginnings of an LLYC Frio River Canyon Field Guide. Way too many sticky notes.

Today’s To Do List: purchase and set up new camp iPod, order bandanas for Cabin 4, confirm delivery of rodeo calves.

Our summer camp team has spent the entire fall and spring in a marathon to get ready for the summer. As much ground as we’ve covered, I find myself wondering if I am fully prepared. I imagine the month of May will always feel like a scramble, no matter how well we’ve prepared all year.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve experienced that same feeling of scrambling to get ready for something. Before a big school presentation or exam. Before a meeting or an important conversation. While preparing for a project at work. Packing for a trip. Marriage! Kids! IN times of preparation, we often experience a lack of trust in ourselves and even in God. Yet most of us would probably say that the answer isn’t always more preparation. Sometimes the act of diving into something, as ready as we’re going to be, is what finally allows us the ability to reach a place of resolve and peace.

As I find myself swimming in a list of things I still have to do before summer, I’m encouraged by Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

God’s good purposes and ways will always prevail.

Today, I rest in that. Today, I pray as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer – for my daily bread. I ask for God’s provision, not for more preparation time.  I choose to have faith in a good God who loves and provides and works with, and often in spite of, my lack of trust. I look at my chaotic desk and pray the words, “God, I trust you.”

Questions for consideration:

  • What anticipations or preparations are cluttering your desk or your mind?
  • Camp is coming fast. What preparations do you and your camper(s) have to make?
  • Are there any concerns or worries?
  • How might you be able to let go of your worry and trust in God’s provision?
  • How can you continue in your plans for family, school, work or camp, and yet operate out of freedom and trust in God rather than fear or desire for control?