Thursday Devotional: Runaway!

It was Wednesday night of Tween Camp. The evening program had ended. I had just finished telling the campers that Jesus gave His life for them because He loves them, and they are His children.

That’s when a boys’ counselor ran up to me in a panic.
“One of my campers just ran out the side door of the gym!” he said.

That’s never something a camp director wants to hear.

I ran out the door after him. By now, the boys’ director and our mental health intern were also in pursuit. We found the boy sitting on the first bench along the Prayer Path, crying.

“God would never love me,” he sobbed. “He would never die for me. I’m just a failure.”

I tried to reassure him, telling him that those are exactly the kind of people Jesus came for. But he wouldn't listen.

“All I ever do is make mistakes,” he said. “Just ask my family. They’ll tell you. All I ever do is cause trouble.”

We sat there on that bench for 45 minutes. As the rain started to fall, we listened to his tears and tried to help him see how much God truly loved him. Finally, as it got dark, the boy was ready to return to his cabin. Our mental health intern promised to keep checking in with him for the rest of the week to help him sort through everything he was feeling.

As I walked home that night, I thought about Jesus and the kind of people He chose to spend time with. He said it Himself in Luke 5:31–32:

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.
I have come to call not those who think they are righteous,
but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Over and over during His time on earth, Jesus proved those words to be true.

• While most rabbis only chose the smartest and most religious students, Jesus invited fishermen and tax collectors to be His disciples.

• In John 4, He went out of His way to talk to a Samaritan woman—an outcast even in her own town. She was the first person He ever told that He was the Messiah.

• In Mark 5, He stopped everything to search for a hurting woman who had touched the edge of His robe. Even with a crowd pressing around Him, He sat and listened to her story.

• In Matthew 8, Jesus touched a man with leprosy—something no one else would do—and healed him.

• In Luke 19, Jesus stopped a parade to invite Himself to the home of Zacchaeus, a tax collector everyone else hated.

Again and again, Jesus chose to be with the hurting, the broken, and the left-out.
These were His favorite kind of people.
And they were often the eager to accept the good news of His Kingdom.

So, ask yourself: If Jesus were living here today, who would He spend time with? Are those the people we spend time with?

And if Jesus gave His life for sinners, then wouldn’t He give His life for you?

On Sabbath morning—just three days after he ran away—that same camper came up to me at line call.

“Pastor Dave,” he said, smiling, “Guess what I did last night?”

I had a good idea, but I wanted to hear him say it.

“I gave my life to Jesus last night,” he said. “And I rang the bell!”

Jesus is still in the business of finding lost and broken people.
That means He’s still in the business of finding you.

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think the boy at camp believed God couldn’t love him?

• Who were some of the hurting people that Jesus helped?

• What does this story tell you about how Jesus feels about you, even when you feel like a failure?