Living in a Tent

Throughout our marriage, we have owned several tents. I have always liked camping and I still have a wall tent that my parents had sixty years ago. Ardella and I have set up tents and camps in Idaho and Alaska. Our elk camps usually had three to four tents and some falls the camp would be used for nearly a month by different family members and out of state friends. One of our most cherished tents is an old wall tent that a friend gave us after his father died. They had used it for many years and I knew if the tent could talk it would have some tall tales. We are looking forward to using it this summer and then our granddaughters will be a new generation to enjoy the old tent. Memories will be made.

Tent camping in Alaska took on a whole new dimension due to the weather and large bears. The first night I spent in the Alaskan bush, I realized how fragile a tent is in a raging storm. We were set down as a storm was brewing and only got two tents up and a few supplies inside before it hit with a vengeance. The bulk of our supplies for the next month were covered with tarps which were secured with rocks. Both tents shook violently all night but stayed up. In the five falls I guided, tents would be flooded, tent poles would snap like tooth picks, and sometimes we would keep someone in the tents to make sure they stayed in place.

When there is a large brown bear outside the tent at night, you realize how vulnerable and dangerous sleeping in a tent can be. I had a bear run into the tie down ropes and then slam against the tent wall, shaking me awake very fast. I didn’t go back to sleep and at daylight the bear was fishing for salmon about fifty yards from camp. While we never had a bear rip into a tent it happens often in Alaska every year. The thin fabric slices like butter in their claws. Ardella and I found a camp a bear had hit and evidently the campers jumped into their boats and left, never coming back to retrieve anything. The bear had ripped and chewed on every item. We were camped about a mile down the shoreline, not too far for a bear to travel. So we slept every night with that on our minds. I would always sleep with my rifle and flashlight beside me. When I had a bear problem the rifle was loaded as I sat up and then I would grab the light. I would let the bear know that I was in the tent, like it didn’t already know that. My advice for anyone camping in bear country is to sleep lightly and have a big gun. Tent walls don’t offer much safety.

Our lives are like living in a tent; fragile and vulnerable to this world. Storms will come and blow hard; shaking our foundation and sometimes our beliefs. The only way to stay safe is to rely on God for wisdom, guidance, and protection. Our Heavenly Dad wants us to communicate with him all the time, not just when life is going bad. We can do that through prayer, reading God’s Word, and having a band of brothers, or sisters for women, to help us. God says if his people humbly pray he will hear their prayers. That doesn’t mean God will give us everything we ask for: He knows what we need better than we do. John Eldridge of Ransom Heart Ministries wrote a book called Walking With God which is a great book about talking to God and hearing back from Him. John’s writings made me realize how much God wants to be a part of our everyday lives. Why do we put God in a box instead of enjoying a life with Him? Everyday I see people with empty helpless lives because they don’t know how much God loves them. Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you.” Only Jesus can give us true peace when there is a storm shaking our tent.