Monday 7 March 2011

Leaving Through A Different Door

I was so blessed to have just spent a weekend at Muskoka Woods with 3 of our Highschool guys and 280 or so other students hanging out in the snow, and enjoying 2 days without homework or parents! Instead we spent time throwing snowballs, pushing eachother into snowbanks, listening to good music, and eating lots of good food!
And while we had a lot of fun - and they got me pretty good as I woke up with butter in my hair, and some writing that I couldn't quite read on my shoulder (I'm pretty sure I got it all off) - we were also challenged this weekend. We were challenged to head back home through a different door. We were challenged to go home different than how we were when we arrived - and not different by simply being 2 days older, but different in our attitude, our passion, our relationship with Jesus!
What's ironic, is that we arrived at Muskoka Woods taking hwy 400 all the way up ... but because of a tip that there was a beautiful ice wall of different colours towards hwy 11, when we turned out of the driveway of the camp, we didn't turn back the way we came - we turned in the other direction and took a different route home.
Now, that's not exactly what was meant from the speaker. Ezekiel 46:9 says "But when the people come in through the north gateway to worship the LORD during the religious festivals, they must leave by the south gateway. And those who entered through the south gateway must leave by the north gateway. They must never leave by the same gateway they came in, but must always use the opposite gateway." (NLT)  And while that's a physical action, what was most important is that they don't go back to the lives they had before.
So, when I look at this for myself, and for the 3 guys that came up with me, I really hope and pray that while we didn't take the same road home, we also don't go back to the same things that held us back from being fully committed followers of Christ. I pray that we left those things up at the camp! I pray that our lives were changed for eternity, and that our lives will never be the same again!

Because I know that my life is a life worth changing, and that if you are reading this - SO IS YOURS!!