Destination-Free Camping Trip

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Ever headed out on a road trip with no destination in mind? Remember the days of the Sunday afternoon drive?  I remember our family taking a few Sunday afternoon drives with no particular destination in mind, but just driving around looking at things.  Those are fun memories. I have also mentioned here before the road trip my family took when I was a kid with one place in mind (Dallas, to visit friends), but no other destination and how fun it was to roam all over Texas, and even into Laredo and all over the Gulf coast region before heading home two weeks later.

But destination-free camping? That's a little different.  Not knowing whether where you are headed is hot or cold, rainy or windy, dry or humid. How do you know what to pack? What sleeping bags to take? Whether you need rain gear or lots of sunscreen? Maybe some of you have done it, but it is hard for me to imagine myself going on a destination-free camping trip. Weathering the elements, I think I would like to know what to prepare for, who to prepare for, etc.

Abraham's story has a big destination-free camping element. The scripture from Hebrews 11 says: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.

We believe that Abraham believe God will fulfill God's promises and so he was willing to head out into the unknown, but imagine the faith and courage it must have taken to actually just set out with his spouse and his animals in search of a totally unknown tomorrow.

And yet, in many ways that is what all of us do everyday. We never know what is around the next bend, the next chapter of this book called life.  Think about how different some of our lives will be by the time we take another trip around the sun. By the time another year goes by, we will be different people in many respects. Some of us will have gotten healed from various ailments, some of us will have moved to far away cities, some of us will have been diagnosed with chronic conditions, some of us will add family members, or lose family members, or add or lose pets, and so on, and so on.

In a lot of ways we are always out on a destination unknown camping experience. In a lot of ways it is our own faith that allows us to go day by day and obey the call of God in our lives.  What happens in the in between days between yesterday and tomorrow are part of a destination that we can plan and plan and plan for, but in the end, still remains relatively unknown.  

Are we willing to step out in faith that our church community will be in a different place a year from now, or even six months from now than it is today? Not a physical move, but an emotional, spiritual and (dare I say, religious) move to something different, even though we, like Abraham, don't know where we are going?

 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.