We're All Just Camping

My family enjoys camping. From my middle school years on, my family regularly took camping trips. We started out as most people start out in camping, with tents. 

I remember those first few years of camping in tents. We never slept on the ground but always on air mattresses, and in the morning, the dew on the outside of the tent would seep through the vinyl tent lining. While my family enjoyed a night or two in the outdoors, we always enjoyed coming home after the end of a camping trip to a nice warm bed and a hot shower. 

Over the years, my family's camping experience has changed. While we started out with a tent, we ultimately upgraded to a pop-up and then eventually to a camper. The comforts of home traveled with us. 

Here's the thing I've learned about camping: for most people, the amount of time you stay away from your home while camping is directly proportional to the comforts of home you bring with you. What do I mean by this? Most people don't like staying in tents for long periods of time, and the longer you camp in a tent consecutively, the sweeter it is when you return home. 

Now, I might be making assumptions about people, but I have never met a person that would prefer a long night's sleep on the cold, hard ground to a nice warm bed. Most people would prefer their home to a tent. 

Now, did you know that the Bible actually compares our time on earth to that of living in a tent? Check it out:
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For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 

(2 Corinthians 5: 1-9)

In this passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul is seeking to encourage the Corinthian church and remind them that this earthly dwelling is not their permanent home. He compares their live on earth to living in a tent, but their heavenly dwelling will be their ultimate home with the Lord. However, Paul's main point is that whether away or at home, their goal is the same: to be pleasing to God. 

The same goes for us. Whether away from the Lord or at home, our aim should be to please the Lord, but we must remember that we're all just camping. This world in its current state is not our true home. Let that encourage you in the midst of hardship and suffering. This world is just the tent, and there are far better things to come in our heavenly home.