Why Do You Keep Doing It?
For me, this week has contained many events, people, and plenty of things to get done. It isn’t too surprising since it is the week before Vacation Bible School (VBS), but I found it to be busier than average. But here we are on a Friday and I am almost through the week and the events have happened, I have seen lots of people for various reasons, and goodness knows I have tried my best to get all the things done.
In the middle of a VBS task (because that list is the longest right now), someone interrupted me. Once I’d helped them with the question they had for me, they asked another question which was, “It’s so much work; tell me – why do you keep doing it?” What a great question! I thought for a moment and was able to offer two things to them.
The first, is that I really believe in the power of God’s love for each of the kids who attends VBS. I want them to hear just the message that God loves them no matter what and that God’s love is utterly unshakable. It’s a seed we get to plant in their lives that we will very likely never see flourish. But my hope is that when these kiddos grow up and encounter something desperately difficult in the future, they will remember that God is with them and loves them dearly. In our darkest days that knowledge that we are loved can carry us through to see another day.
The second, is that I am always surprised by how VBS plays out in the life of a volunteer. After 20 years of VBS, I can tell you that the simplicity of the daily messages rings true for our teen and adult volunteers. Very often, after VBS, a volunteer will come up to me to confide that they feel like they got more out of VBS than the kids did and that they needed the reminder that God loves them. They knew it before, but somehow the message permeates anew at VBS. It’s this message that, yes, even now, after everything I’ve done or not done, with all my faults and failures – God loves ME – for real! It’s a message that we know and hold close, but in a mystical way it becomes more personal and dear to someone through VBS. The surprise is always in who tells me these things later, and I love it.
And I suppose those two things lead me to one other thought about why I continue to do VBS. Both of those things help me notice where and how God is at work among us, even now. The world will throw a lot at us, and the headlines can distract and dismay us. But God is still at work in the world and loves us all – no matter what.
