Have you been camping this summer? Not me. My idea of a great holiday is a bug-free, warm hotel with an attached restaurant.
My one experience of overnighting involved a bunch of wide-awake-all- night 4-H kids in my backyard. I stayed in that leaky tent on that cold lumpy ground because I had to, for the project we were doing. BUT, I hated every moment.
Some would say that I wasn’t prepared; that I should have first removed the teenagers, and then added a heated air mattress, and a bug proof tent. My thoughts exactly; thus the motel plans.
Unfortunately, God seems to like camping. Just take a peek at Exodus. God called his people out into a wilderness with no hotels, and lots of bugs, both insect and human. Scholars say that God wanted his folks to struggle together, learn to operate as one nation, under one God.
Wouldn’t you think he could do that with hot coffee and a slice of quiche at a nice table at the Holiday Inn? Nope. Not then and not now.
We know God is a serious camper because he even has his own tent! The Book of Exodus often chronicles God meeting with Moses and the congregation in or near his personal tent.
The King James Bible calls it the “tent of the congregation” but others call it the “tent of meeting”. A tent implies a moveable dwelling. Whenever God’s glory moved, the people followed. They picked up that tent and moved it to God’s new location.
The lesson we need to learn is that when God moves in a certain direction, we’d be wise to follow. Who wants to get lost in the wilderness? Not me. I’ve learned that life with God is not the Holiday Inn. But if I’m smart, I’ll follow him wherever he wants to lead me, even if it seems that the wilderness stretches ahead with no sign of stopping.
Prayer – Lord God, give us a push out of our comfortable hotels and into camp with you. For Christ. Amen
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