Resetting Sea Level

All my life I’ve enjoyed participating in events that left me closer to my Creator and His Bride. They might have been camps or retreat weekends. The common denominator was the piqued sensitivity to His Spirit and my relationship with Him.

Inevitably, a well-meaning grownup would caution me with the same message: “This is a mountaintop, but you know you have to go back and live in the valley – the real world.”

You know, I’d never really questioned that sage admonition. It makes sense. Picture the lush valley and the cold, windswept, barren mountaintop. If “this” is a mountaintop, you’re right, I don’t want to live up there where not much grows and food is hard to find.

The youth from our church and many other churches in our area just completed Reality Weekend ’09, with David Nasser as the featured speaker. Reality Weekends – some groups call them D-Now or Winterchill – are times set aside for the youth group to meet in small groups and huge corporate gatherings, with a unified objective. The kids disconnect from Facebook, cell phones and texting, even homework (yeah, that’s a hard sale to make), anything that would distract them from connecting with God.

During corporate times, worship is intense and free. Bible study is direct, relevant, and sometimes candid. The participants are engaged, even liberated in their worship. Back at host homes between corporate times, small groups gather to build relationships, discuss the Bible study – and anything else relevant to the group. Again, the participants are engaged and hopefully the small group leader is mentoring and leading them.

Amidst midnight bowling and eating until they puke, walls begin to come down. Walls between cliques weaken. Silo walls of fear and anger around hurt, alienated kids begin to crumble. Kids so self-absorbed during the prior weeks that they barely spoke to their families, looked outside themselves to think up and execute “Service Projects” in the community. Those projects involved helping seniors citizens and neighbors and raising money for Compassion International.

Returning home, the kids are EXHAUSTED but energized with spiritual sensitivity and renewed commitment. They are “returning from that mountaintop,” according to tradition.

Here’s a thought: instead of settling for a return to life in the valley, redefine “sea level.” You see, in the physical world everyone knows sea level is …well… sea level. In our spiritual universe, however, different laws apply. I challenge you, if you’re returning from such a time, to seek to maintain this sensitivity to Him. Seek to make this your everyday level of relationship with Him.

I WANT TO CHALLENGE YOU:
Purpose not to let walls reconstruct. Purpose to care more about what He thinks of your worship than the person sitting behind you does. Purpose to keep (or find) accountability with others. (Ecc. 4:9-10) Purpose to keep your own silo walls broken down, so you don’t return to walking through life in your little bubble of “you.”

Purpose to redefine your spiritual sea level. Grow FROM here, instead of hoping to return TO here. Don’t slide back down the hillside, looking back over your shoulder, sighing about how great the mountaintop was! Make today simply a rest stop in your journey, not the peak or even THE highlight.