Sleep and Summer Camp

It has been scientifically demonstrated (I'd say proven, but whether science can "prove" something is debatable in some circles) that a human being should average 8-9 hours of sleep a night. It has also been shown that many college students are able to stay up until the wee hours of the morning every night of the week, sleep away half the weekend, and repeat the process the following Monday with very little difficulty. It is a tactic often employed for finals cramming, paper writing, girl's night outs, and very late movies. No sleep? No problem!

I am not one of these college students.

I am the type who needs at least 6 hours-preferably more-every night of the week. If this pattern is interrupted, I spend the next day, potentially two, bleary eyed and with my arms stretched forward in a zombie-like manner. Paired with the fact that I find coffee bitter beyond consumption, there is no cure except for more sleep.

When I decided to be an over-night camp counselor for a week, I anticipated a damaging lack of sleep. I expected my 8-11 year old girls to be snoring, falling out of bed, crying from homesickness, crying from stomach aches, being afraid of the dark, screaming in their sleep, and sleep walking into a busy road, probably in front of a semi, or even a train. All of this would occur at least every half hour and require my immediate assistance every single time. I imagined that the the 8-11 year old girls would be awfully disturbed, if not down right terrified, by my zombie behavior prevelant by the third day of camp.

Luckily for me, I did the thing every Christian is supposed to do whenever something is concerning them. I talked to God about it. I said, "Jesus, I'M GONNA NEED SO MUCH HELP! I'll be exhausted, cranky, and rude the whole time! I want to be at camp and give to my girls, but I don't want my gifts to be coated in a poopy attitude! Help me!" And you know what Jesus did? He said, "...if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." 2 Corinthians 8:12. He explained, "Rachel, you want to go to this camp. You want to help these girls. You are willing. What you do will be good enough. Who you are is good enough. There will always be enough." I said, "In that case, I want enough sleep, enough food, enough patience, enough nice words, enough discipline, enough smiles, and enough tooth paste." And God said, "Stay willing, and you got it!"

Camp week rolled around, and guess what? I always had enough. I got six hours of sleep every night (only interrupted once by some one falling out of bed, but she did not cry), was never hungry until we were lining up for food, never ran out of patience, never ran out of toothpaste, and even had enough foam star stickers to decorate each and every pine wood derby car in my cabin. It was a fantastic week! God did wonderful things for all of my girls, and took the time to share a lesson with me.

Lesson learned?  If I am doing what God wants me to do, I just need to do it.  There is no need to worry about money or food or sleep; God will always give me enough.