I spent this past summer at Northern Frontier primarily washing dishes and mopping floors alongside a team of 14–16-year-old boys. It was awesome. Looking back at the summer, I think trusting the Lord’s timing on big and small scales was a consistent theme throughout my experience as NF’s service crew chief. When I applied for camp, I was not planning on being service crew chief, but by the time week 1 rolled around, I found myself with the privilege of taking on the role. It’s a position I always aspired to have “someday,” but I always figured that “someday” would be farther away than last summer. At the start, I found it easy to doubt if I was even supposed to be in the position I was. I certainly didn’t feel ready at times. But I think therein lies the first lesson: trusting in Camp’s and God’s judgment, not mine. This lack of total self-assurance proved vital, as I learned to lean on the support readily given by Captain Pete and others and come to truly rely on God rather than looking for strength solely in myself.

The other aspect of the Lord’s timing I came to appreciate was the day-to-day work of the service crew. In past summers as a counselor and even throughout the school year as a college student, I had come to view my work in terms of weeks. On service crew, it’s more about taking it day by day rather than week by week, as by and large, most days on service crew are the same: morning devos, prep breakfast, clean breakfast, prep lunch, clean lunch, afternoon devos, prep dinner, clean dinner, campfire, repeat. While this may seem monotonous at first glance, it was in this monotony that the crew and I found the continued opportunity for excellence.

Regardless of how yesterday went and what might transpire tomorrow, there was always the chance to put forth all one’s effort for the current day’s tasks. When cleaning a squarehead pot that we’d no doubt have to clean again tomorrow and the next day, the only thing left to do is clean it with all one’s effort. When sweeping chips out from under a stockade table for the third time that day, the only thing left to do is make it spotless. When running the dishwasher with the rest of the service crew, we always had the opportunity to sing as awfully as possible, talk as deeply, or laugh as loudly. Precisely because of the job’s cyclical nature, did we focus solely on working as hard as we could on each given day. Matthew 6:33-34 often came to mind, where Jesus speaks, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (ESV).