Its summertime everyone! For many people summertime means camps, vacations, and a nice tan. I have always loved camp. Camp meant new friends, lots of swimming, fun times, and the ever present chapel or "bible time". Not that I minded the spiritual side of camp. In fact in some ways that was my favorite part. Spiritually, camp meant a time that I was nearly constantly directed to God. Every time I turned around there was some spiritual lesson or illustration. As result I felt close to God, alive and oh so wonderfully spiritual.
Most North American Christian kids get the awesome opportunity to spend a week or more of time at a camp that teaches them about Christ. Statistics show that the majority of those kids at some time or other have made a "camp decision". Just by their label these decisions are shown to be assumed to fail. After all, check up a few months after camp and where did all that resolve go anyway? Why is this?
Imagine this: Your friend takes a vacation in the Bahamas and is gone for three weeks. Meanwhile, you are still working in the office forty hours a week. When your friend returns, he has a really nice tan from all his time spent in the sun, but as the weeks pass and he is stuck in the office again his tan gradually fades. Now how silly would it be for you and your co-workers to tease him about his "vacation tan"? After all, his tan is directly as result of time spent in the sun, so it is expected that it will fade.
In the same way, the bright atmosphere of camp, where much time is spent focused on the Son, kids get a sort of "spiritual tan". As they are constantly surrounded by the Word of God, they cannot help but be changed by it. But when they return home, more often than not the exposure to God's word and the atmosphere of godliness is barely a fraction of what they received at camp. Is it any wonder than that their "spiritual tan" fades? A more appropriate response to camp decisions then may be to help the child to re-order their life to retain at least a small portion of that "time in the Son" so that the influence of His glory may not be lost but rather His light cultivated in them!
The reality of the christian life is that your life shows how much time you spend "in the Son". It may not be as obvious as darker skin, or it may be even more obvious with what comes out of your mouth. But the point is, how committed are you to being changed by His glory? A committed tanner will use the level of change to determine how long he spends tanning. He doesn't watch the clock, he watches his skin. When you spend time "in the Son" do you look at the clock, or do you measure your life against Christ's? If you truly desire to be changed, it can only happen through time spent with the Person of Jesus Christ, being changed by the glory of His light shining on your life.
How much time are you going to spend in the Son, this summer?
(The above illustration is not endorsing tanning or any physical health issues that come with it. Also tanning lotions, etc. are ignored for the sake of the illustration.)
