“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27);”

Youth Camp for any youth ministry is a big event and often is it in these weeks of camp that people lose their usual inhibitions when it comes to God and are open wide to let God in and have His way. Those are the times that life change can come or at the least great memories in ones history with God that are meant to be fuel for ones faith. Having never attended camp as a teen/student, always being a leader of some sort, my experience has been different.

It started with Camp Collision 2011…what started out on the first night as a moment in the preservice countdown of just dancing as one in the crowd and having fun led to something powerful. As I was pulled on stage in front of 250 people screaming and hollering in a split second I decided I had but one choice: to dance my heart out! Now if you do not know me you may ask “can you dance?” Sorry to disappoint but NO not one bit. The little mix dance of a shoulder shrug and a side step quickly got dubbed “The Mooney.” It was a smash hit that stuck with all the campers and even led to my team choosing to name themselves after me  and was requested the remainder of camp. What became a camp moment of hilariousness last year and endless jokes that followed surely couldn’t be ignored for this year’s Camp Collision…and it wasn’t.

I expected at some point it would be “requested” (or “forced”  depending on how you look at it) to dance of some sort at this year’s camp but my prayers to be over looked didn’t last long as one of the worship leaders, Pastor Ben (@dfcben), told me the second night to be ready at some point of a song to come up and dance. True to form Pastor Ben singled me out and called me up towards the end  of service, as we were celebrating God in praise, and so yet again I danced as I did when no one is home and no one watching. It was hard to do and yet fun all at the same time…dancing in front of 300 people when you know you can’t made it that much more a dance of praise for me. I quickly made my exit off the stage when I could and in the moment I gave it to Jesus and thanked Him that if I was gonna make a fool of myself I prayed it was for His glory. Sounds cheesy but that was what I felt…if me making an idiot of myself can help give God even more glory then I’ll do it.

I was told by PQ (@PQSelf, Student Pastor at DSM) that me getting up there really freed up a lot of the kids to be able to praise God but I didn’t believe it; I thought he was just doing his best to pay me a compliment in the moment but it wasn’t until the last night of camp that the reality of what God did really sunk in. In preservice prayer Pastor Ben stopped by me and gave me a big hug and began to share the impact God made through my foolish dancing. It was in the moment of just random sillyness and praise out of God’s faithfulness and goodness that my dancing was used by God to really set free kids who were holding back their praise (either due to fear or intimidation or timidity) into utter freedom in their praise. Thankfulness and amazement towards God flooded me and I can honestly say, it wasn’t until that moment did I realize the value of the foolish things we do in life.

In closing, I leave you with this challenge: be bold, daring and fearless with whatever opportunities God brings along your way…you never know, even if you look like a fool or feel like a failure in an area, that God can use it for His glory. It’s in those moments that He truly takes center stage and gets the most glory we can give in and through our lives to bring freedom to that many more.

Luke 4:18-19:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”