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Have you ever heard a teen complain that the awesome experiences he or she had during youth camp never last long enough? Or are you one of those teens who say that the experiences you had during youth camp always fade too fast? Here are some thoughts to consider.

The ‘God-is-so-close’ experiences are awesome! So we would like to have them all the time, just like we would like to have sunshine all the time. Then again, we understand that we can’t have sunshine all the time, since the earth also needs the rain. But it is more difficult to understand why we don’t experience God so close all the time. We might even think we should experience Him so close all the time or else something must be wrong with our faith. And it’s almost impossible to believe it would do us any good not to feel God.

Feeling God, experiencing Him, is an important part of our faith development. Especially the youth of our time places a high emphasis on the experience. Knowledge is internalized through the experience. So we don’t really believe that God exists until we actually experience Him in our lives. Experiencing God from time to time (during youth camps for example) confirms his existence to us, it confirms that He actually cares about us, and we realize that His love asks for our response. It motivates and mobilizes us.

So what’s with the absence of this ‘God-experience’? How should that do us any good? Maybe you think it only causes you to doubt and fall back into your old habits that have nothing to do with God. It probably does. But is that really so bad?

If we stay on the mountaintop for too long, we might be tempted to believe that since it is going so well, we can do things on our own. What do I need God for? It is going great! But in the valley we realize that if we don’t feel God we tend to disobey and distrust Him, so we learn to cling to His amazing grace. We hunger for His touch. Wouldn’t His embrace be meaningless if we weren’t aware of our deep need for it?

Another thought I had, I actually think I read it somewhere, is that we become stronger believers because of the absence of the ‘God-experience’. When Dennis and I dated, we lived about 800km apart. I tell you, when you don’t see each other for 6-7 weeks, you lose the feeling of butterflies in your stomach. Still I believed he loved me and I loved him, in spite of the absence of this feeling. Every time we saw each other the butterflies just started flying again. Turns out they weren’t really gone, but they just didn’t fly for a while. Through time it made my love grow independent of the flying of the butterflies. I enjoy it when they fly, but I love him when they don’t. So I no longer need the ‘God-experience’ all the time, because my love grows steady and my faith independent of the experience.

So I guess the question really is, what do you strive for? Do you strive for the great feeling of the God-experience? Or do you strive for the deepening of your need for Him and the persistence of your faith in Him? And what do you think God wants for you to strive for? Just remember, sometimes it’s tough and then you have the youth camp memories to hold on to. And whenever you feel God close to you, keep the memory safe for tough times and enjoy!

Ways to help you build on the experience you had during youth camp:

• Make ‘memory cards’ of the meaningful experiences you had during youth camp. Write down or draw the experience you had on the front and write what you learned from that in a few words on the back. Put the ‘memory cards’ in your wallet, hang them over your desk or anywhere else you will see them.
• Talk about it! Tell others about the awesome experiences you had. Tell them about what you learned. That will help you internalize it, so the experience will have a lasting effect even if the experience itself is no longer there.
• Don’t grieve over your loss. Try to be thankful for the great experience and to be thankful for the absence of it. Maybe this blog entry will help you with that.
• Maybe you think you’re only a good Christian if you feel God all the time, just like you did during the camp. Think about what defines a good Christian. Is feeling Him all the time really a prerequisite? How does God define a good Christian?

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