Encouraged by the Mutual Faith

At the end of my last article about not being ashamed to share your experiences about the power of God working in your life (see also: The Burden of the LORD), I related a conversation that I'd had with another counselor at Camp Woodmen where I did precisely what I've been advocating in these last two articles. I left out an important part of the story, although I alluded to it vaguely with the following comment:

God meant for us to share these stories with each other so that we can encourage each other and mutually strengthen one another's faith.

The purpose of all of this openness and sharing that I'm so adamantly promoting is not that I feel that I have some great story that everyone needs to hear. Rather, the point is that you and I, and every member of God's church, have experiences that can help us to better understand the power of God, to see His transformational work in our own lives, and to encourage each other by seeing that work in action. This is the true power and purpose of what we call "fellowship," and one of the primary reasons for which God appointed a holy convocation, a gathering, every 7th day.

The Burden of the LORD

I was, for the first time, a counselor at Camp Woodmen this year, and the experience has fostered some truly incredible changes in my attitude and behavior in the weeks since. One of the many great lessons for me was encouragement - about which I have so much more to say at some point - but encouragement also indirectly led me to what I now write about. After serving as a counselor for 7 days and putting every ounce of energy I could muster into maintaining the best and highest quality experience for each of my campers, I had done a lot of encouraging and had really seen the incredible power of it! But by the end of that time, I had extrapolated an even greater principle, of which encouragement is just a sub-heading.

This year at camp, I had something of an epiphany: I realized that I had many important things to say that God has wanted me to say for a long time. In particular, I had important things to say to the people who mean the most to me. How much I loved them and how much I appreciate the things they've done for me. How one person's example of faith had impacted me. How much I missed someone, and how I have failed them by not telling them this when they needed to hear it, but also how I'm ready to do better. How I've wanted to tell them this all along and even seriously thought about saying it before, but simply let those moments pass by unacknowledged. I came to refer to this need to tell these people these things as "the burden of the LORD," and I've spent a lot of time meditating on the gravity of that phrase.