This week I am speaking and teaching at one of my favorite places, Camp Blue Haven, in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

Having the opportunity to invest in the lives of young people is such a privilege – and I don’t take it for granted.

Our focus for the week is on the New Testament book of 1 Peter, and one of my favorite passages from that letter is found in 1 Peter 2:9-10:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Those two verses remind us that…

We are chosen – which means we are loved and we belong.

We are called.

We have a purpose.

We have been given meaningful work to do.

We have a story to tell.

We have a reason to praise.

We have an identity that is connected to an eternal God rather than temporal circumstances.

Whenever we are able to embrace these truths, we discover freedom from our past, resiliency in the present, and hope for the future.

That’s a message that we all need to hear and live!