davidbowerkingwood

Peace

Playing the Hand You’ve Been Dealt.

Let’s face it, the basic configuration of your temporary dwelling, your tent, is something you inherited from your parents. While it is true, the maintenance and care you give it has a profound effect on the long-term functionality and appearance of your tent, the basic design elements, however, are programmed into your DNA and you have nothing to say about that.

A key point in making peace with your tent is to recognize it as a temporary arrangement; the sooner one accepts the inevitability of leaving one’s tent behind the easier it becomes as that eventually happens in the family. Always keep in mind, you are not your tent, you are an eternal spirit temporarily occupying a tent which is a product of this earth!

Living with Your Tent

I have heard the expressions, average build and height and average appearance many times, especially if one watches the crime shows or the news. Are there consequences for being above or below average? I believe there are consequences in both directions; for a woman, being unusually beautiful can impose a burden just as much as being unusually unattractive. If asked, most women would probably opt for being unusually beautiful but that, to a great degree, is largely a matter of DNA.

For men, appearance is balanced, to some degree, against physical or financial accomplishment. While it helps for a young man to look handsome, if he is a major sports figure or financial success, that can shift the balance in his favor.

One of the factors that makes people watching so interesting is the vast number of differences that occur in the distribution of those features we all share in common. Our general configuration is shared by every human being who has lived on the face of this earth; we all have the same equipment according to our gender, yet we have little trouble in distinguishing between various people.

Slight changes, here and there, produce dramatically different results in people and while there are clearly types of general appearance, within those types, one may observe an endless variety of possibilities. Beauty is definitely in the eyes of the observer; standards for what is thought of as beautiful vary dramatically all over the world.

Deviating from “average” in either direction can introduce complications for either man or woman; it has the potential to shift attention away from the occupant and to the tent; that is dangerous territory as the tent is transient and the occupant is eternal.

Anything that directs the occupant’s attention away from eternal, spiritual matters to the temporal is treacherous and filled with dangers! It is truly sad when the appearance of the tent becomes an essential part of the identity of the occupant as nothing will stop the steady deterioration of the tent.

I have definitely been impressed with how rapidly the tent changes; as I look back, it is easy to recall the dramatic changes that have impacted everyone I know. People I first knew as babies are now grandparents or even great-grandparents and it all seemed to happen so fast. To place too great an emphasis on something that changes so quickly is truly missing the point; it is the occupant that counts, not the tent.

Being at Peace with Your Tent

While we inherited much of what makes up our tent, we have a serious responsibility to see that our tent is cared for respectfully. As Christians, we have been joined in our tents by God, the Holy Spirit and are told our tents have, in effect, become God’s tabernacle on earth.

While Israel was wandering in the wilderness, the Spirit of God inhabited the Tabernacle; when Israel was settled in the Promised Land, the Lord permitted the construction of the Temple by Solomon. As the church, we have yet to reach our promised land and during our mortality are wandering in Satan’s wilderness of sin.

By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit now resides in the tents of the born-again Christian; I’m always mindful of Paul’s admonition to the Church at Corinth where he tells them in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

“¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.“

Just as the Jews respected and cared for the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple in the Land, so should we respect and care for our bodies out of respect for the presence of God, the Holy Spirit within us! After all, we were bought at a price and must therefore glorify God with our bodies!

The union we have with God, the Holy Spirit is eternal and will never change; we have been made “heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ;” “our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us!”

The churches promised land is the New Jerusalem; that is our home and the place where we will someday live, our promised land. In Revelation 21 it is written:

² And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

^“22 Now I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God—the All-Powerful—and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

That is truly a blessed hope, one we shall enjoy from the vantage point of our eternal, heavenly bodies! In the meantime, let us be faithful to:

“⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” Philippians 4:4