Tents and Shells

Read II Corinthians 5:1-10

I remember a dear saint of God when I was growing up by the name of Victoria Booker. In fact, several of you that are reading this may have known her, or at least have heard of her. She is one of my heroes of the faith. She goes beyond any average saint because for many years she was unable to even get out of bed. Her body was so racked with pain that she could only come to church when they would bring her hospital bed into the sanctuary. I was just a young boy when my dad would take me to “cheer her up”. What a stupid idea. What could you say to someone that would be so cheerful and smiling even in the midst of her pain? I remember a time when we stopped by to visit and my dad asked her, "How are you today?", and she blew my mind when she responded, "Just fine!"
As a young boy, I would think to myself that she was just crazy, if not totally insincere. I would ask myself, "How can you say you're fine when you're in so much pain?" Then it happened one day, she made a statement that went something like this, "How I feel has very little to do with how I am. You see, the part of me that hurts is just a shell, not the real me, and the real me is just fine!"
Sister Booker had a very clear understanding of what her body was even though it was so delicately wrapped in pain. She called it a shell, I believe. The apostle Paul called it a tent. And the "real me" that Sister Booker referred to, the apostle called the inward man (4:16).
Although Sister Bookers’ earthly tent was filled with pain and perishing, she realized that it was, after all, just a temporary housing for the inward man. One day she would exchange it for her permanent home awaiting her in heaven. That was her confidence. Today, she is with Him in glory, and after all the years of being bed-stricken, she is probably just running and leaping and dancing like no one else can.
How are you today? Is your tent drooping? Remember, if Christ is your Savior and Lord, a perfect body awaits you one day. But until then, no matter what's on the outside, on the inside we can say, "I'm just fine!" Our body is perishing, but our spirit can be flourishing.

“Nature is something outside our body, but the mind is within us.”
- Bhumibol Adulyadej