EVERYDAY ADVENTURES

The Attack of the 50-Foot Air Mattress

Never set up a brand new tent at a campground unless you’ve tried it first at home. This is especially true if you’re setting it up at dusk with your spouse. There’s just too much at stake. If things don’t go well, you’re going to end up sleeping in your car, driving home or threatening to feed each other to the bears.

Unfortunately, no one gave me this advice before I walked down the aisle. In fact, it was a wedding present that got me into this mess to begin with.

You see, my family loved to camp when I was kid, so when I got married, my dad gave us a dome tent and a deluxe air bed to go with it. It was a great present. I had enough painful memories of sleeping on thin blankets and flimsy, dime store air mattresses to make me really appreciate a quality camping bed.

Those days of roughing it were over, though. My new air bed looked top of the line, probably nicer than my real bed. No doubt about it. We were sure to sleep like babies in the great outdoors.

At least, that’s what I assumed. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to actually try it out or even get it out of the box before our inaugural camping trip, but I didn’t give it a second thought. In fact, when a family from our church invited us to camp with them one Friday night, I jumped at the chance. It was go time. Not only would we finally get to try out our new gear but I’d also get to show my wife how handy I was in the woods.

Yet, as excited as I was about the trip, things didn’t exactly start out on the right foot.

We were late getting on the road, and the campground was an hour away. By the time we found our friends and grilled some burgers, the sun was starting to set.

No problem, I thought. I’ve set up a million tents. This wouldn’t take long. Turns out it took us until well after dark. We eventually had to turn on our headlights just to see what we were doing.

After what seemed like hours, we finally got the tent up and figured we were home free. Now all we had to do was inflate the air mattress with the car pump, and we’d be good to go.

As I watched it fill with air, my excitement grew. The bed looked so comfy. This was going to be the best night’s sleep of my life. But the longer I inflated it, the more my enthusiasm turned to concern. Just how big was this thing anyway?

My eyes darted back and forth between the mattress and the tent, and suddenly I realized we had a real problem on our hands. This bed was much bigger than I’d expected. And like a monster from an old 50’s sci-fi movie, it kept growing and growing and growing!

Once it was full, I wrestled it into the tent, but no matter how hard I tried to cram it inside, it was sticking out the door at least a foot. There was no way we would be able to zip that door.

Now we had a choice to make. We could either sleep on the hard ground or keep the door open, inviting every raccoon, snake and squirrel to come snuggle with us to keep warm. It was a no brainer. We opted for comfort and spent that night with our feet sticking out in the wilderness, all in the name of a good night’s sleep.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons that night. The first, of course, is to try out all of your camping gear before you haul it into the woods. The second is that sometimes small things in life can turn into a bigger deal than we might expect.

For instance, if someone hurts my feelings and I don’t address it or forgive it, it can sour my whole attitude towards that person. Or if I let myself grumble and complain about my job, the next thing I know is I hate my job. If I stress eat every night, by the end of year, I’m carrying extra pounds and feeling lousy.

Bad habits can blow up into addictions. Unresolved conflict can wreck relationships. Judging others and indulging tiny moments of pride can turn us into unloving, bitter people.

Like my air bed that inflated into something so big it crowded out everything else, these little choices can crowd out the joy and peace from our lives.

On the other hand, small positive steps can take us the other direction. Getting out and walking a little every day can lead to a healthy heart. Writing down things we’re thankful for can lead to a grateful mindset. Intentionally letting others go first can turn us into servants. Starting our day with a few minutes of Bible reading and prayer can deepen our friendship with God and our capacity to handle stress.

Little things tend to become big things over time, whether for good or bad. It all comes down to what we want to see grow in our lives and what we want to see diminish. The great news is that we don’t have to navigate these choices alone. There’s a God who loves us who wants to fill our lives with good things and will help us to take steps in that direction one choice at a time.