I was 20 years old when I signed up to be a camp counselor at a Lutheran Christian camp in northern Wisconsin.  I had never been so tired and stretched beyond my limits.   And I had never been so changed by a single summer.

     At this very moment, camps across the country are commencing the frantic season of campfires, swim time, and screaming kids.  Here's a re-work of post from last summer, lessons we all can learn, not just camp counselors: 

 Eleven years ago I was sitting in a chapel packed with 1,000 people.  My name was called and I walked forward.  I was about to discover where I would be a pastor.  

I thought I was going to Denver.  Or possibly back to my native Minnesota or nearby Wisconsin.  Instead, I was headed just a few miles south of the seminary campus.  I forced a smile in front of a thousand people as I returned to my seat in disappointment.

Today is Call Day at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO.  There will be many sweaty palms as candidates find out where they will relocate their life and ministry.   Many will probably say what I said.  "That's not where I wanted to go."  

Here are three things I learned from Call Day.  True for pastors, or anyone called to a place they'd rather not go.

"How's work?" I'm asked.

"Every ten days I want to quit."  I've given this answer a few times in recent months.  Am I really going to turn in my keys?  Probably not . . . but maybe.

Anything of  significance is worth sacrificing for.  And anything worth sacrificing for will leave you with a "tenth day."  Nine days can be good, even great.  But about every tenth we are sobered by harsh reality.

As a pastor,  I hold the hands of widows at the graveside of their husbands.   I'm called when a problem has spiraled into a crisis.  I point people to "the one thing needful" when they're frantically over-committed and don't have time for it.  I love people who don't want to be loved.  I lead people who sometimes don't want to be led. 

So, yeah.  Every ten days I ask, "Can I do this?"
"Am I any good?"
"Am I making a difference?"
"Am I a failure?"  
​"Is this worth it?"

     With any brand, you need a slogan that will capture an audience.  Think of the most successful marketing slogans in history.  Nike . . . Just Do It.  Wheaties . . . Breakfast of Champions. 

    Jesus would fail a modern marketing test.  In what is sometimes called his “recruitment speech,” Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things . . . If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:22-23). 

    Think about a marketing campaign based on suffering.  The logo is a tool of execution, a cross.  The product comes with radical self-denial.  Possible side effects are ostracism, social dishonor, and ridicule.  How many people want this product? 

     Somehow, this campaign has lasted for millennia.  And billions of people have joined the movement.  A significant part Christian calling is the call to suffer.  

     We might ask, “Why suffer?”   Why answer a calling from God that comes with pain or a burden? 

      Here are some reasons to suffer.  

               I was 20 years old when I signed up to be a camp counselor at a Lutheran Christian camp in northern Wisconsin.  I had never been so tired and stretched beyond my limits.   And I had never been so changed by a single summer.

     My kids are at Camp Wartburg in Waterloo, IL this week, so here's a shout out to those counselors and all who labor at a camp this summer.  You gave up a college summer to serve kids.  You sacrificed leisure, a job that pays more, or an all important internship for swim time with screaming kids and camp food.   

     These are lessons I learned as a camp counselor:

     In December I had lunch with six college students.  I wanted to hear what challenges they face and what hopes they have for the future.  A common thread in each of their reflections was an intense burden to succeed.  It’s no longer enough to have a diploma or even a high GPA.  I’m sounding like an old man, but I feel like "things are harder for kids these days."  

     I believe the Great Recession intensified an already hyper-competitive and status-seeking society.  We are conditioned to strive after bigger and better.  Positions of prestige.  Jobs that are lucrative and well-compensated.   Offices of honor.  Places of admiration and influence.  We live in a status-seeking society.    

     My son picks up a penny off the parking lot.  “Dad! A penny!!!”  He handed it to me and I quickly discarded it, flipping it back to the blacktop.  Pennies are a nuisance.  There is even talk that U.S. Treasury might discontinue them.  It actually costs1.8 cents to produce a penny, almost twice as much as its face value.  In 2013, taxpayers lost $105 million on the making of pennies and nickels. 

    My son picked the penny up again.  “Can you even believe this is on the ground?!  Should we look for the owner?  Maybe they’re missing it.  If we can’t find them, can I keep it?!”  I saw the penny as insignificant.  He saw it as a treasure.  

     The Bible consistently lifts up three types of people who are the most insignificant in society .