Camping Trip
In the middle of Francis and Lisa Chan’s book on marriage, You and Me Forever, Lisa describes missional living in a way that’s stuck with me since I first read it.
Reflecting on her beloved childhood family camping trips, Lisa noticed the connection of the glorious feeling of returning home to that of the Christian gloriously reaching eternity. If finally getting home to sleep in your own bed is as great a feeling as it is, how much greater will our entrance into heaven be? Our home now is temporary. It can’t hold a candle to what our lives will be like in eternity. In Lisa’s words, “We are on a camping trip! It might be a 70 or 80 year camping trip, but that’s all it is” (126).
She continues, “It would have been laughable to see people rolling up into our campsite with their luxury vehicles, pre-built homes, pristine clothing, potted plants, and their personal gourmet chefs. That’s not camping. When you’re on a temporary camping trip, you are more than content with the basics. You don’t need to set up a well decorated, cushy home, because you already know that the majority of your time will be spent pursuing the adventure” (127).
Here’s a question: How are you treating your camping trip?
Are you making your campsite as nice as possible, spending all your time and energy on the potted plants and decorations? Or are you pursuing the adventure, trusting that the basics are all you need until you get home from this temporary camping trip of life?
Our God is trustworthy.
He has promised his provision. Look at Matthew 6:25-34:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
He has promised us an inheritance. Look at 1 Peter 1:3-5:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The best piece of advice I can give you is this: trust God, and steward your (His) resources in light of eternity, not for this temporary camping trip.
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