We Need New Heroes

Its another night off here at camp. I'm pretty tired, especially this week. Some of that could have to do with my part of camp doing the 'man up challenge' all week. Its a ridiculous event but its a lot of fun. About half of the male staff plus a few campers are walking around camp shirtless (but not inside or at chapels), wearing hats or headbands, eating all of their meals with knives or fork handles, and laughing hysterically at how we all look. Well, maybe that last part is just me and a few really cool counselors. Originally I thought the challenge had a component where you had to wear short shorts but apparently that isn't the case. Essien (my half Nigerian partner who also goes by Gumby) has been doing pretty well with that part of the challenge by wearing a nice pair of blue running shorts.

My cabin isn't so wonderful this week. Some of their parents thought it would be genius to send their kids who are friends to camp together, so they got here and since we've been trying to get them make friends with the rest of the cabin so we can all get to know each other. I think its getting a lot better but Essien isn't as optimistic. I don't think Mike is either, but he isn't as vocal about it.

Anyway tonight I went to the staff Bible study. We went over Esther's story, a fascinating one. The leader of the study talked about how all the women were pretty much just there as objects for the emperor. The part I found to be most interesting was that a Jew named Mordecai wasn't kneeling down and honoring one of the emperor's officials. The official then decided to kill all of the Jews because Mordecai wasn't respecting his authority and as a people group, the Jews acted differently, they set themselves apart. I find it encouraging that they lived 'in this world, but not of this world' in a very apparent way. I was also struck by the parallel of kneeling down and honoring an official with standing up, doing the 'camp hand salute', and saying the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. Both are symbols of government and worldly power and in both cases, we are expected to stand and honor them. I stand for the flag stuff, but I stand to pray. Unfortunately, Mordecai ends up being promoted to second in the empire and he makes a special day for the Jews to go out and kill all of their enemies, which they do. My explanation is that he didn't have integrity and the massive power of the empire corrupted him. At any rate, he wasn't loving his enemies and praying for those who persecuted him.

I can only pray that I would have the faith and courage that Mordecai must have had to stand up for what he believed in the face of death. The title of this entry comes from Jesus for President, where it encourages us to look for the heroes who are around us every day and are normal people. I'm looking. If you know of any, please let me know. ;)