You were made for this

To really live life, you have to get out of your comfort zone.

You've gotta spit crickets,

and dress up like a hillbilly

and sing along with Miley Cyrus

and drop to your knees and pray.

We'll be doing that and more -- way, way more -- for the next week, living the Young Life at camp in Asheville, N.C.

There is not enough blog-space to explain what Young Life is. You can't REALLY understand it without turning off the TV and experiencing it.

But here's a vignette from last year's camp that gets to the heart of it.

The song "I'm Not Who I Was" is playing in the dark. Hundreds of kids are sitting cross-legged or propped against each other. In the quiet. Listening.

I wish you could see me now
I wish I could show you how
I'm not who I was
I used to be mad at you
A little on the hurt side too
But I'm not who I was

Quietly and solemnly a young woman walks onstage carrying a poster-sized piece of cardboard. On the front it says: "Abandoned by my dad."

Turning it over, she reveals the truth she holds:

"My heavenly father will never leave me."

Behind her is a muscular Latino guy with his cardboard message:

"Addicted to porn."

Smiling, he flips his sign: "Satisfied in Christ."

In walks a wisp of a lady, with her tears. Her sign says: "Cutter"

Eyebrows raise in the audience as she overturns her cardboard. On the new side: "Totally healed by God."

One after another they appeared, baring their old lives on cardboard:

"Anorexic"

"Party-girl"

"Whore to the world"

And, one after another, their signs turned, revealing their new lives:

"Fulfilled by the life-giver"

"Dancer for Jesus"

"Pure in Christ"

Pretty dramatic.

Drama, adventure, lavish love. All part of a time often called "the best week of our lives."

Mine too, my precious teenager friends... mine too.