Thoughts On A Given Day

In 1977 I applied for a summer job at Caswell, or as it is more officially known, Fort Caswell, the North Carolina Baptist Assembly. I think it is safe to say that the decision to apply for that job at Caswell changed my life, and it changed it for the better. I must confess that it was not my own idea to apply there. My younger brother, who had worked there previously while I was away in the Army before going to college, was the person responsible for my application to Caswell. I had been trained as a medic in the Army and my brother asked me to offer my services running the infirmary there. I didn’t know much about Caswell, but I did know it was at the beach, and that sounded good to me. I did not go down there looking to serve the Lord. I did not go down there looking to better mankind. I did not go down there for any altruistic reason whatsoever. I took that job to be at the coast, to be at the beach, and to be around young women with good tans wearing scanty bikinis. Shameful, I know, but that’s the truth as I recall it.

When I arrived at Caswell, it was everything that I had imagined, but it was also less, and it was also far more. It was certainly the beach. It remains to this day my absolute favorite beach, not because it had miles and miles of endless white sands stretching out toward the ocean, but because of its isolation. In my mind I had pictured Myrtle Beach, which, prior to that summer was what I thought a beach was supposed to be like. Caswell was less than that, but I don’t mean less in a negative way. It was less crowded, less commercial, and certainly less comfortable. Other than my infirmary there were very few other air-conditioned buildings at Caswell in 1977. There were no TVs. There were very few phones, and the surrounding area offered very few amenities. It was isolation at its best. When I entered those gates I left the world and it’s problems temporarily behind. As I said, it was less than I expected, but it was also far more.

I have listed my reasons for going to Caswell, what I didn’t realize at the time was that my reasons were not why I was going to Caswell at all. It had never entered my mind until I got there and had been there for a few weeks that it was God who wanted me at Caswell. It was God who pulled me away from my normal day-to-day existence and put me in a place where he could speak, and I could have enough quiet around me the so that I could hear him. That was totally unexpected. Don’t misunderstand me, I had been in quiet places before, I had discovered in the Army that it is possible to be surrounded by a multitude of people yet still feel, and be, alone; but Caswell was different, and I must say it wasn’t always quiet. There were most often more than 1000 young people at Caswell every week, looking for fun, looking for fellowship, looking for a good time at the beach, but also looking for and finding God. Unlike me, most of the people who worked at Caswell went there looking to serve the Lord, to honor him with their lives, and to help young people come face-to-face with God while they were there visiting. It did not take me long to realize that I was different, that I was missing something that they had, and I knew that I wanted what they had. I yearned for it. Before the end of that summer at Caswell my life was changed. I learned the importance of Christian friends. I learned the importance of service to others in a Christian context, I learned that sometimes extremely hard work and hardships can be a wonderful experience if it’s done in service of the Lord. It wasn’t that I had never heard of these concepts before. I had grown up in a family where this was taught. But sometimes you have to see these truths lived out in the lives of others before it sinks home. That’s what happened for me Caswell. I witnessed people living sacrificial lives, and I wanted to be like them. I still do.

Obviously, everybody can’t go to Caswell. Nor is that necessary. It was a place where God, at a time in my life when I needed him to intervene, set me apart so that I could hear him and see him at work in the lives of others, but we all have our own Caswells. We all have our own place where God sets us aside and speaks to us and we hear him best. It’s up to us to listen and to see him at work, because he is at work, and we will see him if we look, and we will hear him if we listen. As for me, I am so thankful that my younger brother asked me to apply for a job. It changed my life.

^{Genesis 28:16}

^{New International Version (NIV)}

 ¹⁶ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”