This Life: What Could Go Wrong? Pt. 1

 

“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” 

Matthew 5:44

When living full-time in a moving house, there’s a lot that can go wrong. I mean, a lot. When we consider that our home is just a big box on wheels that sustains long drives, bumpy roads, rowdy kids, temperature swings, varying weather, leveling challenges, and set-up and tear-down (opening/closing slides, vents, and jacks) almost daily, it’s no wonder we run into regular maintenance issues. Most thankfully, Justin is very handy and able to remedy almost any repair need that comes our way, and we haven’t had to deal with anything devastatingly bad so far. But what prompted me to write this post now and include the particular verse above was something a little out of the ordinary:

The night before last got unexpectedly chilly here in southern Indiana. When we arrived a week ago, the weather was sunny and comfortably warm during the day, but we got hit with several days of rain and a cold front that brought freezing temperatures at night. We’re staying in a quaint, open grassy field surrounded by trees in the Hoosier National Forest, and have had the entire Horse Camp mostly to ourselves, save for the occasional hiker during the day or solo camper overnight. 

We had brought our generator out the night before, just to use the microwave and get the heat up before bedtime (the generator allows us to use the fireplace heater and our ceramic space heater, without running down our batteries). We very rarely use the generator since it’s a bit of a hassle to bring out and we don’t really need it; our solar gives us sufficient power, the propane heater works well, and we can reheat food on the stove if necessary. However, when temperatures are at or near freezing, it’s tough to keep the camper warm without sucking the life out of a tank of propane, so we decided to use it again this particular night, running it for about 3 hours (until it ran out of gas) before bed to get the interior temperature up. We heard another camper pull in a few spaces down from us once it got dark, and they, too, ran a generator. We heard their's turn on and off a few times and it sounded like there was a car door slamming several times, but we didn’t think much of it. Our “jenny” turned off/ran out of gas at the expected time and we headed to bed at around 11pm.

The next morning we were a little slow-moving, but I noted that our new neighbors left around 9am. Justin went outside shortly after to add gas to the jenny so we could get the house heated again, but when gas started pouring out of the hose, he knew something was wrong. Upon further inspection, he found that two of the rubber fuel lines had been cut - one of them in two places - very obviously sliced by a person with a tool and not by accident. What an awful feeling to know that someone had the gall to come so close to our camper (while we were sleeping, no less), cut the lines to something that could have been our only source of power (if it weren’t for our solar), and for no immediately apparent reason. It made me really want to lay hands on somebody, and not in the Biblical sense. 

Best guess is they did it to steal our gas (though the tank was empty), but we’ll never really know. They couldn’t take the generator itself because it was chained and locked to the fence behind; they couldn’t have been annoyed with the sound because they were also running one; there is nothing we could have done to insult or bother them, since they arrived after our kids were in bed and we were holed up inside. As a person with strong Christian principles and a convicting moral compass, I am endlessly confounded when things like this happen. It isn’t explainable, isn’t justifiable, and I don’t get any restitution. It’s just pure, worldly, self-interested sin, with no regard for others. It makes me both sad and angry, until I remember to lift my eyes to Jesus, cast my cares on Him, and let Him handle the outcome. This is not my forever home (thank you, Jesus), and some things are not meant for me to understand. I am simply called to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me, as backwards as that might seem. 

Thankfully, we needed to make the 30 minute drive into town to get groceries and do laundry anyway, and it was only a couple dollars for new hoses that Justin had no problem replacing. Thank goodness it also wasn’t anything worse, like slashed tires or something that would really have put us in a bind. It’s hard for me to accept that some… actually many things will always be outside of my control. The safety of my family is paramount, and I am certainly more aware of my surroundings, more cautious of others, and more prepared now to protect my kids when I take them out. I’m not saying this from a place of fear, for I know the One who is our shield and strength, but I also know the world we live in. I tend to want to assume the best in people, but occasionally they remind me that not everyone believes the same things I do and not every campground we visit will be an Acts 2:44 experience. 

Anyway, I had to get that one off my chest. Let me jump off the soapbox for now!! “Part 2” should be a little more fun, since I plan to compile a list of all the bumps, breaks and issues we’ve dealt with so far along the way. Although none of it was very funny at the time, it is a little comical to see it all laid out in one place…. So stay tuned!!