Reflections in preparation

As I pack for camp tonight, I am thinking back on the last year, and how much Crossroads has made an enormous impact on my life. I've learned so much over the past year, grown so much, and, I pray, become a better friend, daughter, student, sister, and person.  Of course, not all of this is because of camp, but it is all because of the way my relationship with Christ has grown this year, how He has pulled me closer and opened my heart to His love, and some of His plans for me.  This all did start, however, with Crossroads.  

• I have discovered a passion for "at risk" kids and families.  This has come from a desire to make an impact on people's lives.  God has revealed to me the suffering in this world through a variety of different things, and I have come to realize that I cannot sit by in the comforts of suburbia and pretend like everything in the world is as easy as my life is.  I cannot do it.  I think my reading of Irresistible Revolution has a lot to do with this.  Just hearing about a different way to live.  A literal take on Jesus's teachings in the new testament, and an opening of my eyes to the inequalities in the world today really changed my goals and aspirations in life.  
  
• I have learned what a servant's heart looks like, and have slowly begun shed the fear of being used for the desire of serving and loving people.  
  
• I am discovering what it means to have selfless love for the people around me.  This process is well chronicled in this blog, and honestly, I'm no where close.  I am on the road, however.  
  
• I have fallen in love with the outdoors and every thing about it.  I can't get enough, even on hot summer days.  This I owe completely to Crossroads! 
  
• I have focused more on school, and have a growing desire to do my best in every moment of my life.  I struggle with why I need to do that (as an offering to my Christ as opposed to the satisfaction and pride it brings me as a person)
  
• I am learning to have a relationship with a boy, and to not be scared all the time, and to live in the moment, and what emotional purity looks like.  SLOWLY learning.

I'm sure there are more, but thats what I've got.  Also, when I say I, its more "Jesus is teaching" as opposed to "I am learning"