In a few weeks our Imagine Nation Youth will be going to Lake Junaluska for their summer youth retreat, and it makes me think back to the summer after my ninth grade, when my youth group took a week-long retreat to the John Umstead State Park in Raleigh. On the last night of camp, our Ministerial Intern, Molly Levin, had us stand around the campfire, and she asked us to write on little slips of paper things that got in the way of our relationship with God.
We wrote down things we wanted to get rid of, things we wanted to leave behind: like jealousy, malicious talk, stealing, gossip, vulgar speech, coveting, addiction — whatever it was. We wrote it on that piece of paper, and then we went around the circle, and we threw those pieces of paper into the fire.
Then Molly gave each of us a new slip of paper, that had a new word written on it. She said, “Now, remember, you are a new creature, because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. And this is how you show it.” On someone’s slip of paper was the word, “Compassion.” On another, “Kindness.” On another, “Humility.” One said, “Love.” Mine read, “Forgiveness.”
Then she said, “Once you know that Christ has died for you, then you leave those old slips of paper — those old weights, those old sins — in the fire. And what you carry with you are the signs of the resurrection: Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Love. Forgiveness.
I’ve been converted by God’s grace on more than one occasion in my life. That night was one of them. You see, when Christ comes to dwell in you and me, we become a new creature, because we have a brand new relationship with Jesus Christ, and with God. Something fundamentally new has happened inside of us, and we will never be the same again.
