Camping Out
Camping is awesome. Right? The fresh air, being immersed in nature, the fire, the animals, the insects, the hard ground, going number 2 in the woods or in one of those shared camp toilets that smell like something unlike anything else. So organic. Camping is awesome.
An unofficial 99.9% of people given the choice between staying in a king’s palace or camping in a tent will choose ... the palace. What? Did you think it would be the tent? Camping certainly has its benefits - the most important being to remind us how good it is to live in a home. But only crazy people want to camp out forever.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul masterfully outlines how our stay here on earth is like being in a tent. The body you are carried around in is not intended to live forever. It is a tent, and it will be put away some day when you get your “house” made for you “eternal in the heavens.” You will stop the camping down here in mortality and start living in a home as God intended it.
While expounding on our earthly campout, Paul uses the word “groan” to describe how we yearn for freedom from the ailments of the body and mortality. I think this analogy is so appropriate that it hurts. The word groan brings to mind sleeping on the floor of a tent with nothing to separate me from the hard ground but a not so well padded sleeping bag. Some of the poorest nights of sleep are spent in a tent. Groan.
But Paul further explains that it is God who “has prepared us for this very thing.” God was the one who prepped our camping supplies, assembled the tent and made sure that base camp was set up. God even camped out with us for a time to show us how to properly manage our time on earth. Furthermore, God did not leave us in our mortal tent without hope. According to Paul, he gave us His Spirit as a guarantee that home will be waiting for us when our camping trip is completed.
Take courage you wayfarer of the campground of mortality. There is indeed a King’s Palace awaiting you.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10