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 After
a week in the wilderness of central Idaho, my shirt was
Thanksgiving dinner for hungry enzymes. I first decided to shave
only the right side of scrawny beard, to protest the far left;
then changed my mind and shaved both sides — to prove I was a
happy man; and my hunting partners said I still looked
like a protest. There were no bottles to “hit” or miss on
this trip (I missed a cougar at 50 yards — quick shot, lots of
excuses) but when the elk were packed in, and we were on the way
home, I began to think of the lessons one can learn from a truly
back-country camp.
The
genuine “essentials” of life are brought to focus in this
place. Shelter — a tarp, or even an overhanging tree —
becomes tremendously important as night approaches and the air
fills with wet, clinging snow. A flickering fire changes the
dark unknown into a friendly, inviting circle. A simple plastic
jug, making water quickly available and easily handled, becomes
a marvelous “invention” and simple foods are a “feast”.
In this perpendicular land dry socks and properly fitted boots
are vital — while only a fool considers “style”.
Christianity
has its “style mongers”, and perhaps most of us have lived
under such sheltered conditions that we tend to confuse
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the frills and “luxuries” of what
we know as the “church” with its true essentials. If we
could, somehow, move into a sort of “back-country” and have
to “pioneer” our way — sans the traditions and accumulated
trivia of our age — I suspect we would be astonished at the
absolute essentiality of some principles we now tend to ignore
— and of the utter worthlessness of some “externals” we
tend to magnify.
With
the Stygian blackness of ignorance and error made apparent, we
would grasp hungrily for even the most feeble rays of truth and
hope. God’s Word would assume its rightful place of
importance, and we would read and study like truth was going out
of style — which it is. When we saw our own stark nakedness in
sin, we would not complain at the seeming “roughness” of
truth’s simple cloth; and Faith in Christ would be such a warm
and sheltering paradise. “Wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16)
would be Oh so welcomed, and we would be so ashamed of petty
excuses that have prevented our faithful service to God.
A
WILDERNESS TRIP— GOOD FOR THE SOUL!
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