How to Be a Happy Camper

My husband recently reserved a campsite in a nearby state park to take our daughters, ages three and five, on their inaugural camping adventure. As we headed out in his truck that weekend, loaded with all our gear and food for a cookout, I knew a lot of rain was in the forecast. Even so, with camping not exactly my favorite pastime, I went along for the ride with a fairly positive attitude.

We got to the park, picked out a spot near both the creek and the public restrooms, with our barely potty-trained child in mind, and set up camp. As our girls and I hunkered down in the tent with all our stuff while my husband left to park the truck, I realized we had a problem—our tent floor was filling with water. Each time I dried a puddle with an old towel, a new one appeared in its place.

At first I thought the tent window was leaking. But when my husband returned, we realized water was pouring straight through the roof. Our bags were getting wet, our clothes were soaked, and I was ready to pack up and go home. But the kids wanted to fish, so we stayed a while. My attitude rapidly went downhill.

“Can we go home now?” I asked my husband.

“No, the kids aren’t ready to leave yet,” he said.

(And I’ll be honest, I really wanted to say “I told you so” about the whole messy situation.)

Eventually, when my youngest got tired of her shoes sinking into the mud,  we were all cold and tired, and my husband had tried his best to start a fire in the rain and failed, we gave in, packed up our muddy tent and gear, and drove home. There, in our warm, dry dining room, we enjoyed the most delicious burgers I think I’ve ever had.

The camping trip that wasn’t reminded me of when my dad took me camping for my birthday one year with my best friend and her dad. The weekend started off with my dad locking the keys in his truck at a fast-food restaurant on the way to that state park and ended with me falling off my bike on a hill, a mouse eating the food in our screened-in cabin, and an air mattress deflating in the middle of the night on a concrete floor. My dad and I ended up sleeping in my best friend’s dad’s SUV starting at about 2:00 a.m., with him sitting upright in the front passenger seat.

The beauty of these now humorous disasters is that I will never forget them.

When everything falls into place, we feel great about ourselves in the moment, but it’s also incredibly boring. Adversity fills us with humility and gratitude for God’s provision. He uses hard times to draw us in, to teach us patience, and to show us beauty even in life’s messes.

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“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2–8 ESV).

When we count on our own planning and skills instead of looking to God for guidance, we forget where our true and lasting joy resides. If we recognize, instead, that God is the author of our stories, we may not always be the happiest campers. But we will forever be his grateful servants, along for the fun-but-bumpy ride until he calls us home.