Jesus the Camp Counselor

Mark 5: 35-41 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side," Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher! Don't you care if you drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

When I was at my wit's end with my campers of the week, I would often think of this story. Here was Jesus, tired from preaching and healing and leading crowds of people around. He finally found a chance to take a breather and just get in a little nap. All his disciples had to do was manage the boat. A task that shouldn't be too hard for 12 guys, many of whom were once fishermen. Jesus just wanted a nap. He was just dozing off in the comfortable swaying of the boat, when the disciples run up to him in a panic . . . "The wind! The waves! We're gonna tip over! We're gonna die! What do we do?!?! JESUS!! DON'T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE GOING TO DROWN!?!?!" Sound like anything you've heard before? And all Jesus has to do is sit up, wave his hand at the wind and say, "Cut it out!" And the amazing thing is, IT DOES! He then turns to his disciples and in a sleepy, disgruntled way says, "Really? We're doing this again!? You still don't get it, do you?"

I have moments like that with my campers. I'm just about to fall asleep and get a little rest after a short night with two bathroom breaks, running around in the hot sun and 3 more days waiting for me until the end of camp. Then all of the sudden, "EEK!! A BUG!!!! JOHANNA! JOHANNA! JOHANNA!! It's a bug and it's HUGE!!" I get up to see an ant on someone's bunk. I either squish it, or catch it on a piece of paper and fling it out the door. "Really girls? We're still afraid of ants? Haven't you been at camp long enough to realize that there are bugs and nothing's going to hurt you? I'm going back to sleep."

To put Jesus in the role of camp counselor even more, consider this! It is very likely that His disciples were only 15 years old. And even more likely that they were, in short, Rabbi Rejects. If young boys of that age were out fishing with their fathers, then they were learning the family trade, not on the way to become a Rabbi. So Jesus, picks out 12 of the smelliest, most average type guys around, and to top it all off, they were about 15. No wonder it's easy to picture Jesus as the camp counselor! However, He didn't have these guys for a week, He had them for three years and he picked them. Now if that isn't an example crazy love, then I don't know what is.