High Places

I went to Survival Camp this summer. It was an amazing, life changing experience. But on the last day, something said by the guest director has and will continue to impact the way I think about any other big event.
He told us how the Israelites always went up to the 'high places' to worship God. He compared that to the week of intense growth we had experienced that week in the mountains of Montana. Then he said something that really challenged me. He pointed out that the Israelites, after worshiping God in the high places, didn't stay there. No food would grow there, and the villages and cities where they lived were down in the valley.
It was the same with us. We had grown and been stretched for a week in the high places, he said, but we couldn't stay there, because the people we are called to serve are in the valley.
This is a concept that I've had to continue to apply over and over again as I've attended big events. Just recently I attended another event, and it was very difficult to leave and return to the real world. I had to continually remind myself that the time I spent growing in the high places was improtant, but it didn't mean anything if I couldn't apply what I had learned to my service in the valley.
As Christians, we are called to serve, and as this is the case, we cannot live in the high places, sequestered away from the world. We need to work alongside those to who need the good news we have. The people we are called to serve are in the valley. We need to live, work, and serve in the valley, where the people are, and apply what we learn in the high places to that service.

We need to live a life of servitude.