Camping (AKA Remake of "A River Runs Through It")



This warmer weather we have had the last few days brings my mind around to camping.  We started a camping tradition about three years ago to go camping with some friends in the spring. Another friend of ours gave us a 15-20 year old tent.  Yes, it was a bit old, but it appeared fairly sturdy. We weren’t sure if we would continue our camping traditions, so we didn’t want to buy a new tent.  This story is about the second time we used this tent.  We noticed the previous time we went camping that some of the seam tape was coming off.  We kept meaning to repair it, but never got around to it.  We also meant to buy some of the waterproofing spray to protect the tent, but didn’t do that either. Besides, the weatherman promised us beautiful weather the whole weekend, so we didn’t have any worries!
The weatherman was 95% correct.  We had gorgeous weather 95% of that weekend.  The second night we were there we noticed lightening on the other side of the lake.  We talked to the camp host who said we might get the tail end of a large storm, not much rain, but probably a lot of wind.  He suggested we bring in most of gear, which we did.  However, since we weren’t anticipating much rain, we decided not to put our tarp over the tent (we didn’t have a rainfly).
After pulling everything in, we all bedded down for a nice evening, or so we thought.  I awoke at 1:30 a.m. to rain splashing on my face, puddles all over the floor, soaked kids, and a very frustrated husband.  (At one point, part of that seam tape I mentioned earlier fell off and stuck to his backside, making it look like he had a tail!  That would have been hysterical had it been any other moment but right then!) My then 2-year-old son ended up in a slightly less damp spot on our bed because rain was pouring in on his. My then 5-year-old clam shelled herself up in her sleeping bag trying to keep the water off her.  Eventually the rain subsided and we were able to go back to sleep, but needless to say, we figured out that night that it was time to weatherproof our tent.
Like our tent, we need to do some weatherproofing of our own lives to protect us against the storms that Satan will throw at us. In this particular instance, I say Satan is none other than…the weatherman.  Oh, the weather’s good, you don’t need your tarp, maybe it will rain, but only a little bit.  He works in partial truths, 95% of what he tells you will be true, but that 5% that isn’t true will trip you up.  One of the lies he’s spreading now that’s very popular is that what we do only effects me, no one else.  However, like my children who got drenched because we didn’t weatherproof our tent, others are very much effected by our actions, most especially our family members. Don’t follow the “weatherman”.  He’s a pied piper playing sweet songs that would ultimately destroy our eternal lives of happiness.  He doesn’t want us to be happy.  He wants each of us to be drenched and soaked in misery, just like him.
Weatherproof your lives against the fiery darts of the adversary by not listening to Satan, keep out anything wet and unholy, use the Holy Spirit as your tarp, spray the scriptures on your heart and mind, and have plenty of stick-to-it-ivness to endure to the end so that we may say as Paul said “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).



PS - Just in case you were wondering, we bought another tent shortly after this incident!
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