Back To Normal...or is it?

As I type this, I'm wondering how on earth things will ever be the same now that I'm back home. I just finished my tenth and last week of working at camp , and I honestly don't think things can even begin to be the same. So much has changed...I have changed so much and grown so much. Kids like Hunter still leave an imprint on my mind and hold a place in my heart. I had the opportunity to lead three kids to Christ this summer as well as help two others with assurance of their salvation in Jesus Christ. I can never forget them either. To see how Jesus saves is so much better than to know He saves. Knowing is one thing, but actually believing and trusting in it is another thing entirely. That's the difference between knowledge and faith. Faith is acting on that knowledge. Like...I know God loves me, and I know He saved me. But I had to believe He loved me enough to die for me and believe He could save me and then accept it. Simple things like that make me think more than they used to.
Having worked in the kicthen and having cleaned bathrooms for most of the summer also changes you. Now I wonder how fast I can clean a bathroom here at home as opposed to the ones at camp, and whenever I'm eating a meal, I still have the mindset of: "I have to eat quickly so I can get back to the kitchen and start doing dishes." I learned to humble myself and serve others instead of waiting for them to serve me. I discovered I had developed a "work ethic." I don't know how it happened or when, but I do know if I don't have a job to do, I start to feel bored. Before, I didn't mind sitting around with nothing to do. Trust me...it's not me...it's God working through me and changing me so radically I can't even recognize myself in a lot of ways.
Coming back to reality also means feeling the burdens of what goes on outside of camp. Camp for most who worked there or were campers there, is a refuge. God works mightily there...you can feel Him working and see Him working. Now I must remember that I am going to college in less than a week, and I also must work my way through college. That means I have to learn to be very disciplined and balance work, school, and sleep...while at the same time still having fun and putting God first and not forgetting my friends and family back home in the process.
Sometimes reality is no fun. I got slammed with some reality this morning (er...afternoon...I was exhausted.) after waking up and coming into the kitchen to eat breakfast. The problem still plagues my mind. What would you do if you found out that after all the times of reaching out to someone and trying to love them like Christ loves us and giving to help this person out, that they had abused it and used this genorosity to help their drug habit? You still want to help them, but how can you when the person just seems to be using you...the smile on their face when they come to church in the morning is not for you...but for what you can give them?...what would you do? My family is facing this at this very time. I honestly do not know exactly how I would handle it personally. I know that yes, we need to demonstrate love and let Christ shine through us, but the way to approach it is a sensitive issue that can be difficult. I am reminded that we live in a broken world. The people are broken and in need of a Savior. They think drugs or money or possessions or people will keep them satisfied only to find that at the end of their life it brought nothing but emptiness. So what are we doing to help the problem? The virus is sin...the antidote is Jesus. If they don't know what the antidote is then how can they be saved?
Back to normal means living in this world but not being of it. Back to normal means telling others Jesus came to save them regardless of the consequences. Dare to be the difference this world needs. If you just blend in...as the camp theme for the summer was, then "What's the difference?" Where's the change...it's back to normal for us, but it doesn't mean "be normal." It means radically stand out and be a bright light shining in the darkness of the world. This message is for Christians reading this...it's time to face up to the challenge instead of cowering behind your "Christian" label. You call yourself a child of God...please live like it. I don't have the answer to the hard question of how to help the person I mentioned, but I know God does. We have the answers in God's Word...or God has them and hasn't revealed them yet. So trust Him...the hard questions will come, but He's still God and still in control.