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How would you like to live a portable lifestyle? You wouldn’t have the continuity of going home to the same place every day, and you would probably spend much of your time moving around. I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I went to college, so until that point I really didn’t know what it was like to move. I lived in various residences during college and a few places after that, but even now I have lived in the same house for 7-1/2 years. While moving and living in a new place can be a fun adventure, I do enjoy the consistency of having a place to call home.

Way back in Old Testament times, the people of Israel did not have a permanent home. After they left a life of slavery in Egypt, they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years. Were they lost? Nope; they were just following God, as He led them and taught them many lessons during that time. One of the lessons they had to learn was that God is always with them, regardless of what geographic location they happened to be at that day.

One way this lesson was taught was through the tabernacle. The tabernacle was essentially their portable church building, also known as the tent of meeting. This was the place they worshipped God while wandering through the desert. It had to be portable, because they lived a portable lifestyle, going wherever God told them to.

I attend the Catalyst Church in Findlay, Ohio. One of the things Findlay is known for is its flooding problem, and the Catalyst building is not excluded from that! In the six or so years I’ve attended there, I believe we’ve been flooded out of our building at least six times. We know what it’s like to have a portable place to worship. When the waters are rising, we pack it all up and head on out, finding a different place to gather and worship until we can return.

As much as consistency is a comfortable thing, being portable like the tabernacle just goes to show us that we are God’s people wherever we go. During times of displacement from our usual building (often for a month or more), the Catalyst tended to gain more people into the body, and we would grow closer as a community. Not having a specific building to meet in on a Sunday morning doesn’t make us any less of God’s people, just as the people of Israel worshipping God in the tabernacle rather than a permanent temple building didn’t make them any less God’s chosen nation.

What consistencies are you clinging to in your life? Are there things that God is asking you to make more portable like the ancient tabernacle, so that you realize His constant presence in your life, no matter where you’re at? Consider that as you go about your routine this week.

Go read James 1:12-18 for further study on why persevering through trials is so important to your walk with God.