This past summer, the YMCA of Central Florida helped 25 teens, seven volunteers, four college students, and three team members travel to YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly to once again participate in the annual YMCA Christian Values Conference. Many of our teens had the opportunity to experience and participate in activities significantly different from life at home. Each participant in a group is led by an adult counselor that listens to the teens and helps them grow in their faith and self-confidence. For some, it is the first time to go on an actual hike up a mountain—but for others, the hike they experience is more of an emotional and spiritual journey than a physical one.
One of the main activities that takes place during camp is devotionals. Everyone has the opportunity to come together, sing songs, and hear a sermon all while we're surrounded by the beauty of God's creation. This year, our theme came from a song called "Out of My Hands" by Jeremy Camp. Below are the opening lines to the song:
Every day this never-ending pressure
Tries to take its claim over my heart
I have tried to hold it all together
But time and time again, I fall apart
But that's where I find my life was never mine at all
You are the One inside always in control
So when it feels like all of this pain is never gonna end
Brought to my knees by all of these things I don't understand, I will let the weight of my fear fall like sand
Out of my hands and into Yours, out of my hands and into Yours
Powerful stuff! Our teens were learning to put their trust in Someone greater; that there is Someone who loves them so much more significantly than we can even imagine. This song helps us understand that Someone wants to take the pain away from disappointment, fear, and heartache that we sometimes experience in life. That lesson isn't just for our teens. It's for all of us.
If you're like me, letting go and giving those fears to God is not always my natural behavior. When I feel stress and heartache, my natural behavior is to often hold tightly to things that I should let fall like sand into the hands of the One who can honestly do something with those unhealthy fears. 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) reminds us to "Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you."
For me, spending time quieting my soul in prayer, talking with a trusted friend, counselor, or pastor, and getting some physical activity in my life allows me to recalibrate and let those unhealthy anxieties go. My prayer for you today is that you could "let the weight of your fear fall like sand out of your hands and into His, out of your hands and into His."