BREAKING CAMP

Numbers 4:1-5:31; Mark 12:18-37; Psalm 48:1-14; Proverbs 10:26

 “When the camp moves, Aaron and his sons must enter the Tabernacle first to take down the inner curtain and cover the Ark of the Covenant with it.  Then they must cover the inner curtain with fine goatskin leather and spread over that a single piece of blue cloth. Finally, they must put the carrying poles of the Ark in place.”

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’  The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  No other commandment is greater than these.”

“Go, inspect the city of Jerusalem.  Walk around and count the many towers.
Take note of the fortified walls,
and tour all the citadels, that you may describe them to future generations.
 For that is what God is like.  He is our God forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die.”

We cannot stay on the mountaintop forever.  Eventually, Mondays and rainy days always come.  No sanctuary on earth is perpetually safe. One sure constant in this life is change.  That’s why God instructs us to know, protect and take with us His holy things.  When we go from safety and security to the unknown, it helps if we take extra precautions to guard our hearts and secure what’s important.

For me, like many others, college was my moving away time.  In addition to the simple geographic separation from my early life and loves, there was a whole new set of people, ideas and mores with which to adapt.  I have no dramatic stories of drug abuse, alcoholism or other debauchery.  Nevertheless, I did not handle the transition particularly well. My heart was left unguarded, and my mind was captured by the intellectualism of campus life.  Who needed God?  I did not reject Him so much as see Him as irrelevant.  Though certainly not terrible by the world’s standards, neither did my priorities come anywhere close to holy.  My spirituality, what there was of it, was largely cosmetic.

Turned out, that was more than rejection enough.  Predictably, unguarded and unprotected, my heart fell victim to my emotions, and I walked into very serious sin.  Then, I woke up one day to find myself without hope.  Don’t misunderstand; this was a far cry from the despair and grief one usually associates with such a state.  Ironically, life actually was pretty good.  I was not suicidal, just empty.  I had nothing to look forward to, no vision or inspiration.  In a word, the colors of life were all shades of gray.  I probably could have lived that way for years, if not forever, kidding myself that was just the way “adult” life was supposed to be.  But the Spirit knew better, and would not let me kid myself. 

Thanks be to God!  I am learning the Great Commandment is also The Great Secret of Joy.  There is never a lack of inspiration or vision for one focused on God and his or her neighbor.  Now, when I get selfish or self-centered, I see my loss of inspiration as the warning flag it is.  Only the Spirit and His purpose can truly sustain.  Whenever life throws us a curve and our situation changes, we have to train ourselves to protect the holy things of God, and to carry them with us, wherever the Lord leads.