This past weekend, I had the privilege of taking 14 youth on an inner-city service project in downtown Toronto. 'Project Serve', as we call it, is a wonderful opportunity to show teens that they have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate than they are.

We typically arrive in Toronto on Friday night and use a Salvation Army church sanctuary as our headquarters. Teens go out in groups of 4 with a leader over the weekend, to work with numerous mission organizations from this central location.

My role is to stay at HQ and co-ordinate everyone coming and going. I wake the first group up at 4:30 in the morning so they can go out with the Breakfast Van. It's my job to make sure they have coffee and cereal and get out the door.

After that it's usually 2 or more hours before anyone else needs to get up, so I hang out in the kitchen area where I get everything ready for the teams for that day.

This means I have a lot of spare time on my hands, and I am a person who likes to keep busy; so I start looking for things to do.

It struck me this time how disorganized and messy everything was in the eating area. We've been to this location before, so I knew this was unusual. I had lots of time to clean the stove, counters and cupboards but I really had to hold myself back from my desire to re-organize the pantry and straighten things on the shelves. Please don't take my comments as criticism - these are wonderful people who are unbelievably dedicated and busy night and day.

I thought about why it would be like this and came up with many legitimate reasons: Christmas is very hectic for anyone working in the Salvation Army; staff change locations often and wear many hats, so perhaps no one was taking ownership of the kitchen right now; or maybe it's just that I'm a perfectionist (heaven forbid anyone spend 3 hours alone in my kitchen with nothing better to do than scrutinize!)

As I continued cleaning and pondering, I had the sudden realization: they're leaving!

That's why this space looks like no one is concerned about keeping it up - they move into their new building, very soon. We were privileged to take a peek at their brand new, beautiful facility which will be opening in February. At a time when they are crazy busy anyway, it would not make too much sense to put much energy into the condition of their current location when they will be leaving in a few short months.

As I asked the Lord to forgive any criticism I entertained toward my brothers and sisters, I realized there was a lesson here for all of Christ's followers. We are leaving too - this earth is only our temporary dwelling place.

Yet how much of our time, our energy, our money and our thoughts are given to make our earthly life more comfortable? I was quite convicted as I thought of these dear people who have given them- selves to a lifetime of serving others, and the great example they are of what our Lord expects from each of us.

God wants us to be servants, and yet sometimes we spend all our money and time serving ourselves.

How would my life change if I truly thought of my life on this earth as temporary?

This is a sobering thought as Christmas approaches. As our group walked the streets of downtown Toronto late at night, I saw the poverty of the homeless person sleeping under a bench behind the Eaton's Centre in stark contrast to the festive lights and extravagant window displays less than a block away.

Of course I want to give gifts to my children at Christmas, but perhaps a greater gift I could give them would be to open their eyes to their true purpose on earth as they dwell here as Christ's ambassadors, preparing to one day live with Him in their true home.