Ideas Have Consequences

These past two weeks, I've been at a so-called "summer camp" (more accurately described as summer school) in Colorado. I went with high hopes, knowing that I would meet some neat people and actually excited about spending a couple hours in class everyday. Little did I know we would be spending 70 hours in class over the course of about 10 days. Ridiculous. A good ridiculous. We covered everything from bio-ethics to Bible study tips, with every imaginable cultural category in between. Our brains felt like they were exploding by day 3.

We rafted the Arkansas river after being there for about a week. Dr. Noebel had told us on the first night during orientation that this was the only place in the world where teenagers cry to go to sleep. None of us believed him. By the end of the first week we did. Needless to say, by the time river rafting rolled around, I was less than thrilled about waking up at 5:30 in the morning, just to spend four hours traveling in a bus. Turns out, the water pressure at the Arkansas River was higher than it has been since 1995. And we, being crazy teenagers, decided to do it anyways. It was absolutely incredible. (And we were very thankful that nobody died.) The guides encouraged us afterwards by telling us that we had participated in a historic event.

When we weren't in class, we were usually discussing class (or getting ice cream downtown. More often than not, a happy mixture of the two.) Every night we had the option of attending what was called "open forum". A group of us students (usually about 50 0f us) gathered on the huge wrap-around front porch for question and answer time with a specific professor. I learned almost as much in that hour and a half as I learned during the six hours of lectures earlier that day. It was a fantastic way of turning the information that had been swimming around in our heads to practical application.

I now feel lazy if I sleep in past six o'clock in the morning. I have been re-motivated to study my Bible, now that I've realized there is no possible way to survive in this world without it. I find myself wanting to say "peace" every time a car passes by. (Thank you, Dr. Noebel.) I now have friends from all over the country that care about the same things that I do. Not only do I have the desire, I now feel equipped to be a world changer.

Ideas have consequences.

My parents idea of sending me to Colorado for two weeks had life-changing consequences.

Thank you, Summit Ministries.

www.summit.org