Struggling with fatigue?
Being a camp counselor is no joke. There are obstacles to overcome, fatigue that creeps in at the toughest moments, and inconveniences that seem incredibly significant when they crop up. The work can be rewarding, but also very exhausting. I know firsthand. This past summer, I served as a Junior Counselor at a camp for Christian Scientists.
Even though I was consistently striving to do my best and trying to set a good example for the campers, I felt like I wasn’t giving 100 percent in some areas of my job. I tried to express energy and effort the way the counselors I’d looked up to when I was a camper had, but I felt burnt out by the end of each day. This fatigue, paired with the concern of an illness that was going around, made me realize that there was some adjustment needed in my own thoughts.
I felt burnt out by the end of each day.
When the exhaustion of the session caught up with me and I started experiencing a sore throat, I headed over to the camp’s care house—a place for counselors and campers who need rest, extra support, or Christian Science treatment.
As I took some rest time in the care house, I was able to speak with a Christian Science practitioner who was there. Practitioners’ prayers have helped me before, so I was eager to hear what she had to say. She opened up a book by Mary Baker Eddy called Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896 and showed me a section on the subject of contagion. Although I was tired and not feeling my best, some parts of the passage stood out to me.
One part in particular says: “People believe in infectious and contagious diseases, and that any one is liable to have them under certain predisposing or exciting causes. This mental state prepares one to have any disease whenever there appear the circumstances which he believes produce it. If he believed as sincerely that health is catching when exposed to contact with healthy people, he would catch their state of feeling quite as surely and with better effect than he does the sick man’s” (pp. 228–229).
That last sentence changed the way I was looking at the situation. I thought about my fellow counselors who were expressing so much joy, energy, and life. They didn’t feel down just because they were tired or not feeling their best. They naturally and consistently expressed those qualities, not because they were especially strong or capable, but because we are all created by God, who is the source of joy, energy, and life. By understanding that “health is catching,” I could see how these “healthy” qualities are really what’s “contagious,” and that I naturally express them, too. I immediately felt better and more energetic.
I didn’t experience any major fatigue or decline in health for the rest of my time at camp.
By the next day I was completely healed.
Back in my cabin, I looked for all of these “healthy,” or good, qualities being expressed by my co-counselors and found opportunities to reflect those qualities throughout the day. This healing changed my whole summer. Not only was the illness permanently gone, but I also didn’t experience any major fatigue or decline in health for the rest of my time at camp.
I am very grateful for this experience and for the new understanding I gained that has helped me on my journey as a Christian Scientist.
