"i am somebody"

i have said this a few times, " i miss working at camp", but last night really made me miss it.
this is the last week of camp and to top it all off it is sunshine camp (mental and physically handicap). my favorite camp. it can be hard and trying, but there is nothing better than taking care of someone else who loves you without any thought.
the campers believe like Jesus told us to believe - child like faith.
they are so honest and they really do care about the people around them.

i miss seeing and feeling that.

thankfully angie is playing the piano for chapel and i tag along. i get to sit in chapel and listen to them sing "i'll fly away" and the "butterfly song". they clap and dance (something that i have never felt free enough to do) as the music fills the air.

i sat there taking it all in. then they started singing a new song.

"i am somebody, because God loves me, i am accepted just the way that i am."

not to get mushy, but i almost started to cry. it was beautiful. most of them couldn't even sing it, but it still sounded so perfect.

too many times we forget that we are accepted just the way we are. we try to form ourselves into something we will never be.

there was a time that i did this. i tried my hardest to be the perfect little christian solider. i packed my Bible under my armpit (which i doubt God liked too much), i listened to only christian music, and i learned to put down other people around me. for some reason i thought that is how God wanted me to act, but i was way off.

last night i think i realized that i am the handicapped person.