I like to think that I'm what you might call an "All or nothing" kind of guy... This is what merited the nickname "Charlie Hustle" in my summer softball league team the first summer after freshman year at KU (Given to me by the umpire after I jumped the fence off first base to get a foul ball). I think if you're going to do something, you should go all out, or don't do it at all. I try to live by this. Often times I fail at it. But that doesn't keep my heart from desiring it.
It reminds me of when I was at KU, playing basketball at the Rec center up there, you get all kinds of people. TONS of guys who think they should be playing for KU's basketball team play in pick-up games there. The most frustrating experience for me was when you'd get on a team of guys who all they would do was jack around rather than play basketball. My competitive juices flow way to strong to just goof around on the court rather than go all out. How can you play the game half-heartedly? Often times, because I would try too hard, I'm sure I was looked at strangely from these very same guys.
The ante is upped even more when there is something to play for. I'm thinking about all those intramural games when it came tournament time and the winner of the tournament would get a free t-shirt. Oh man, how people would really go all out then, just to win a free t-shirt. (that's not a ridiculous concept for a college student. They would do anything for a free t-shirt!) Even this past year. I was on a rec league dodgeball team and we went undefeated! Impressive, I know! But, every single game, I would try my hardest and would be so disappointed every time I got out, because I knew, in the end, there could be a free t-shirt if our team just kept on winning.
We all try harder, go longer, live with all we got when there is something to play for, to fight for, to die for... It reminds me of the first summer I worked at Camp Tekakwitha. I was going into a situation I knew nothing about, had never lived, and truly did not know how hard it was going to be. All I knew is that I wanted to be a positive role model for young teens and do my best to bring them closer to Christ. As I geared up for the one month I was going to be there, (I had to take a class in June, so I could only work in July), I was doing my best to let God prepare my heart so that I could be my best for whatever campers I was entrusted with. When it came to be just a couple of days before I headed back to camp for the first camp of July, I remember thinking to myself, "why does God want me there? What am I doing this for?" And as I reflected on that and prayed about that, it came to me. I wasn't just going to do it so that I could be a positive role model for those teens, I was going to lay it all out there for my brothers and my sister. So that they may in some way receive the graces that might be given through the work that was done that month of camp. And I remembered this frequently as things got hard, difficult, tough, as sweat dripped down my face from being in 100 degree heat for most of the day, as I was slowly getting out of bed at 6:30 in the morning to wake up campers and go for another 17 hour day. I remembered this specifically as I received our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist every time we had Mass. My siblings were what I was fighting for. They were what I was going all out for. They were what I was dying for. And Man, what an AMAZING summer it was when it was all done. I looked back, and I could truly say that I left it all out on the field, and I did it for them.
I reflect on this because just yesterday I was part of closing down camp with Camp T-Extreme with some AMAZING and EXTRAORDINARY people for the 6th summer in a row with the theme of "All for You". Every summer has brought me something new to reflect upon, something new for me to grow in. Something new to change my life. This summer, I realized that God is calling us to go all out. He wants us to use ALL that we got, not just a little, or some, or a fraction. He wants us to use ALL that we got. And in that, He wants us to use ALL that we got FOR something or somebody. He wants us to use ALL the gifts, talents, abilities, graces, blessings, beauty, truth, goodness, ALL of it, FOR something or someone that is bigger than ourselves!
And I have ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT in my mind that all of the Staff that worked at Camp Tekakwitha this summer truly lived the theme for this summer by going ALL out FOR something bigger than themselves, which I believe is YOU. YOU may be the close to 2,000 campers that came in and out of Prairie Star Ranch the past 2 months. YOU may have been the 90 some staff members that worked, sweat, lived, prayed, hugged, laughed, and loved each one of those days. YOU may have been the families of every single one of those campers as they sent their children away for however many days to encounter Christ through the ministry of Camp Tekakwitha. YOU may have been the Archdiocese of Kansas City, KS that Archbishop Naumann so gracefully shepherds to a closer relationship with Christ. YOU may have been their own families that they left and barely saw this summer so that they could lay their lives down for a new family, the Camp Tekakwitha family. YOU may have been the names or people, or things that the staff wrote down on the cross at the beginning of summer during staff training that resided behind the tabernacle of the Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha Chapel all summer.
But I truly believe, the biggest YOU that our staff gave their ALL FOR was none other than our King of Kings, our Lord of Lords, our Prince of Peace, our Savior, our Messiah, our God, JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF! They lived out the theme of "ALL FOR YOU" for God Himself, knowing that this is what God is calling us to. God wants us to be people with an "All or nothing" attitude. Not just in sports. Not just in school. Not just with our extracurricular activities. Not just with our relationships. Not just with whatever our dreams, our desires, our hopes may be. BUT WITH OUR FAITH! He wants us and is calling us to be "All or nothing" people for our Faith in His incredible love for us that was demonstrated through the life, death and resurrection of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and continues to be evident through the mysterious and beautiful movements of the Holy Spirit that resides within each one of us through our Baptism. This is what it means to be Christian. This is what it means to be Catholic. This is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. And this is what I challenge you ALL to live out FOR the rest of your lives, and this is my hope for YOU.
Thank you so much Camp Tekakwitha Staff of 2011 "All for You". Thank you for living our theme out so beautifully in this summer at camp. Thank you for giving your ALL with every single day that God gave us. Thank you for doing it for whatever YOU you may have been living FOR, giving yourself FOR, dying to yourself FOR. And THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING IT FOR OUR GOD WHO CONTINUES TO GIVE HIMSELF ALL FOR YOU EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIVES! You have truly transformed my heart for the better, and know that you will be in my prayers for the rest of my life.
Continue to live "ALL FOR YOU" the rest of this year. Strive for it despite whatever challenges, difficulties, trials, persecutions, sufferings, weaknesses, hardships, and failings you might face. Work towards it with ALL YOU GOT! And know that I will be doing the same and continuously looking forward to seeing you again every time I receive the Eucharist. This goes for whatever campers that may end up reading this blog too. Just because you aren't at camp with the theme of "All for you" doesn't mean that you still can't live that out. Give it your all to live out "All for You" every single day this year no matter what comes your way. And know that God will continually live ALL FOR YOU.
