The following post is from Molly Shoulta, a graduating senior at Georgetown College, and a previous Selah Vie participant. This blog is part of a series of reflections on Selah Vie.
Molly Shoulta (furthest right) enjoying the lake Selah Vie
I will have the privilege of working for Passport Camps for the third summer in a row beginning in early June. I believe strongly and firmly that the thousands of youth, kids, chaperones, and community members Passport staffers come into contact with throughout the summer have their lives changed. As a Bible Study Leader, I loved watching the 6’4” senior football players humbled before God on the last night during the invitation, and found just as much joy in the middle school girl that found confidence in her faith by end of the week. Last summer, I was blessed to lead worship and from that unique angle, watching God move in an auditorium-turned-sanctuary was remarkable. I would watch teenagers file down the aisle into the embrace of their Bible Study Leaders, who seemed to be the only ones who could make sense of the emotions, the hurt, and the call they felt to embark on a renewed journey with their Savior. But, oddly enough, my favorite faces to watch were the ones that were stuck, unable to leave the rows of seats, not because they couldn’t maneuver around friends, but because they didn’t quite know what they were feeling. Inquisitive faces revealed pondering hearts not quite ready to take the next step.
At the end of both summers, I have attended Selah Vie, a program open to staffers and leaders participating in Passport, CCI, or student.go ministries throughout the summer. Experiences ranged from inner city youth work to stepping into a pulpit weekly. Students came together to share experiences, worship together, and reflect on a summer that challenged and grew their own faith as they sought to cultivate the faith of others.
It was in the worship services at Selah Vie that I truly felt my summer had served a purpose in the lives of others. It was within the litanies, the sermons, the testimonies from the summer, sure. But the one piece of Selah worship that I have taken with me and even been able to pass on was the idea of planting seeds of faith in others. Singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson’s “Planting Trees” describes the need for tending faith even at the earliest stages so that one day, even in many years, that small seed will be a blessing to others. His lyrics read,
So many years from now,
Long after we are gone,
These trees will spread their branches out
And bless the dawn.
I guess I wonder too often about the teenagers stuck in the seats. I wonder if I had reached out to them one more time during the week, or maybe if they would have heard a song one more time, or maybe if the pastor’s sermon would have dug a bit deeper, or what if the owner of the home they’d been doing mission work on during the last week had been more appreciative, maybe then they would have realized God’s love for them.
I will never be the gardener my Dad is because I will never be meticulous enough to understand which seeds get planted when. There’s something with Easter flowers, but the tomato plants have to be planted in the early summer, and but we can grow herbs year round. But his diligence in tending to each plant means that each one, individually and in its own time, will bloom. And perhaps this is my best understanding as I look forward to another summer of cultivating deeper roots of faith within teenagers. Not all immediately bloom, not all will understand the grace of Christ in only one week, but all will receive some TLC that will one day be able to be extended to others along the faith journey. I am grateful for the experience at Selah Vie and being able to understand the intentionality of each and every interaction that may nourish a new or ignored faith. I am but small part in the Kingdom of God, but am excited about the seeds planted and the blooms yet to be seen.
Let go of all that’s passing,
Lift up the least of these.
Lean into something lasting,
Planting trees