Memorial Day Weekend

My doctor told me that I had strep throat on friday and take it easy this past weekend. I listened to him/her and cancelled all of my plans, but I didn't stay inside. Are you kidding me? It was 80 degrees out and the nicest weekend of the year. But instead of going where the crowds were at the parade and everything else, Cynthia and I went to Birch Bay and hung out on the beach.
I was watching all of the different families there, it was wierd for me to go somewhere in Blaine/Birch Bay and not recognize one person, and I noticed all of the kids. Here were these kids who didn't want to get any kind of protection from the sun (sun tan lotion, hats, shirts, etc.) put on them. All they cared about was getting out onto the sand bars and into the water. I watched these kids sprinting out across the barnacles and out into the water. I leaned over to Cynthia and asked when did we get so grown up that we stopped sprinting out ahead of our parents without any protection from our environment, without any cares about barnacles or glass, without any care in the world.
I wonder this about our spiritual lives also. When did we lose that fire that made us stand up during a song without being told to? When did we start being cautious about who we talk about the miraculous love of Jesus? When did we start relying on the church as a protection from thoughts and ideas outside of teh church that some would deem "too secular" or "sinful". When did it become okay to settle for where we are when God has plans so much bigger than we could imagine. And when was it exactly that we started to look at people through the eyes of a christian and not through the eyes of a Christ follower?
Christianity becomes a struggle of submission, that a lot of the time we aren't willing to lose. Our childlike faith becomes less and less when we don't slow down to think about it and the reasons that we God put us on this polluted planet. We are called to be a loving community toward our God first and our neighbor (believer or non believer, gay or straight, homeowner or homeless, it doesn't matter)second.

any thoughts?
ron

South Beach Update: I lost seven pounds in four days and gained it all back in one night when I went to the Mariner Game with my small group and sat in the luxury box with the all you can eat buffet going on and cushy seats. This day could have been the greatest day of my life. I will never go to another mariner game because I don't want to ruin my experience of the first time...unless it's in the box seats again.