Calling for Help

The girls are at it again; tempers rise and wining begins. Taking a bath at the end of the day results in comments like, “I can’t do it! Why can’t we just take one tomorrow? I wanna go home!” Going to the undesired activity produces responses such as, “Why do we have to do this? We never get to do anything fun. It’s not fair!!!”

While the Adventurer girls fuss and whine, I find myself sending up a desperate prayer:

“God help me!”

Perhaps they are the most common and, above that, the most important words a counselor can utter.

As a counselor, one learns that there are some things that can be “handled” by yourself but even more that are out of your control. You may decide that the day is going to be great fun out on the lake but…then it starts raining and your campers begin complaining about staying inside. Or you want to have a special worship one evening but…it takes you forever to arrive back at the cabin after campfire and by the time everyone is showered and ready for worship, 11:00 pm has come and gone. And in that madding rush, don’t forget to set your alarm for 5:30 am!

It’s during those times when nothing seems to be going your way and the campers are revealing their true colors that you realize anew that you’re really not cut out for this job. Your credentials may have looked nice but nothing could have prepared you for camp. Pretty fast you figure out that there is no way you will get through this summer by your own strength. And that is when we send up the prayers for help, when all hell seems ready to break loose.

But why?

Why do we wait until the storm has hit and the waves are rolling to call for Jesus’ help?

Maybe it’s because we are just like the disciples on Lake Galilee. The moment that storm began to form, they could have wakened Jesus and said, “Lord, we think we’re pretty experienced fishermen and have battled many a storm, but we need your help anyways.” But no, they decided to battle the winds and the rains until just before the boat was about to sink and then cry, “Lord, we’ve tried to battle this storm by ourselves for quite some time but now we’re going to die so help us now, okay?!”

Calling on God for help before things become chaotic is something that I know I need to work on. I’m the type that hates to ask anyone for a favor unless I know there is no way I can do something without them. Even then whenever I ask I feel horrible about asking. Although I know asking God for help is never a bother to Him, it’s still in my nature to go through the day trying to rely on my strength and power.

The thing is, God shouldn’t just be God of the storms and trials but also the God of the peace and the calm. Jesus should be Lord of our lives when our world seems to be coming apart but also when we have a world of wonderful possibility in front of us. He’s our help in time of trouble but He is just as powerful and essential in time of joy.

During one of those times of trouble here at camp, I send out a text message to friends asking for prayer and one of my friends Christine reminded me of a verse I had learned in Sabbath School many years before. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of Host.”

This is easy to believe when it’s obvious that there was no way we could have done something by ourselves but do we believe this even when it seems like everything is all going according to our plans and wishes? Do we really believe that it’s only by the power of God that we can do any true good in this world?