What We Can Learn from our Spring Break Desitinations!

This past week the Elmhurst School district along with all the Catholic schools in Elmhurst had their spring break.  Many of the kids went off with their parents to warmer weather, which was perfect timing because it was cold and rainy all last week.  As the families returned, they shared their wonderful stories of the beach, warmer weather, and great times.  Two vacation destinations that were shared with me was Disney World in Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada.  And how can you not look forward to visiting the Magical Kingdom and or lights of Las Vegas?

Yet, what were these places before it was Disney World and Las Vegas as we know today?  Orlando was a swamp.  There was a reason Walt Disney was able to buy so much land.  Nobody wanted it!  It was filled with Alligators and pestilence.  What was Las Vegas, but a desert with no life!  Yet both of these places were transformed from a swamp and desert to some of the most coveted vacation spots!  What a transformation a dream can do!

Yet that is what the Lord desires to do with our hearts.  He wants to take the swamps and deserts of our life and transform it into something beautiful.  This past weekend the Gospel proclaimed talked about the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  Death was a result and consequence of sin.  Lazarus, who had been dead for 4 days, laid in a tomb covered by a rock.  The Lord calls them to remove the stone, only to receive the following response from Martha, "By now there would be a stench!"  Yet the Lord, the light of the world, wanted to bring light into the darkness of that tomb.  He wanted to release Lazarus from the bonds of sin.

Lazarus' story is our story.  The Lord wants to do that in our lives.  Because of our sin, we have become bound up in sin.  We try to cover that sin with the stone.  Not wanting to reveal our sinful nature - our pride, lust, anger, greed, envy, sloth, or gluttony (the seven deadly sins), and yet that where the Lord wants His light to shine.  Our response to the Lord is similar, "you don't want to go there, there's a stench." 

Just imagine, if man is able to transform something like a swamp and desert into a major vacation destination, what the Lord could do if we only removed the stone wall blocking His entrance into our hearts!  The Lord would literally take that which was dead, and bring it new life!  Something everyone would want to see!