Anybody been to camp this summer? Bible camp, particularly. You know that feeling right after you come back from camp where you just feel like you're at a high in your relationship with Christ? Maybe, not everyone gets that, but I know a heck of a lot of people who do, including myself. So, let's say you have this amazing camp experience and you get home and you're thinking, "man, that was awesome. I'm gonna be such a great Christian from now on." You read your Bible every day for like a week or so and are totally excited... Then, you slowly start to forget that after camp feeling. Things start returning to normal. A month or so later, you realize what's happened. You start to wonder how it happened. Life is the way it was before and you realize it's not supposed to be that way. James 1:22-24 says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." That's exactly what happens after camp. We have this amazing closeness with our creator at camp, then go home and forget what that feels like almost immediately.
Revelation 2:4-5 says, "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." We are supposed to be the light of the world. Remember that song... "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." We need to be the truth in a world of lies, a light in a world of darkness, the image of Christ in a world of sinful desire. So, don't forget that your true love should be God and you live to serve him and bring his love to others. If that's not what you're doing, you're not helping others to see the glory of God.
Galatians 4:15a says, "What has happened to all your joy?" Where did that feeling go? Did we just forget about Jesus or were we consumed with love of something other than our saviour? Is it possible that we were distracted by something of this earth?
Today, at my church, one of the youth pastors asked "what has stolen your heart?" When you got home after camp, what was it that brought you back down? Maybe, it was your friends, work, or even your family. I got yelled at within the hour I arrived home. "Back to normal," I thought. There are somethings that we cannot change, but we have to find a way of changing how we look at them.
How the heck are we supposed to do that? I think the answer is in James 1:2-3. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." That's it! Joy! That's all we need! Is it so difficult to find joy in all that God has provided us with?... Okay, yes. I know this sounds cliche, but it's all a part of growing up. If we don't get through the trials we face in some way or another, we're never going to become the person God intended us to be.
So, to sum it all up: don't let things go back to normal. A popular Bible verse, 1 Timothy 4:12 says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." Be a light. Things are pretty screwed up these days, so we've got a whole lot of shining to do. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Your turn. What change do you want to see?
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