The Upside-down Tent
Parashat Yitro, Exodus 18:1 – 20:23
Gabriella Kaplan, virtual member, Ruach Israel, Needham, MA
Seeing the good in things can be incredibly hard. One of the hardest things the Jewish people had to endure was being slaves in Egypt and then having to travel through the wilderness. When Moses tells his father-in-law, Jethro, all that had happened to them in the wilderness and “all the hardships that had befallen them” (Exod 18:8) Jethro responds by rejoicing and praising God. As the Torah says, “And Jethro rejoiced over all the kindness that Hashem had shown Israel when delivering them from the Egyptians” (Exod 18:9). Never once does it mention that Jethro spoke about the trouble or “hardships” that the Jewish people had encountered on the way or the bad things they went through.
When something bad happens to me, my first instinct is to be upset or angry, as is human nature. What we learn from Jethro's response is that it is better to rejoice about the good moments than to worry or dwell upon the hardships that we have had to overcome to reach where we are now. We also can infer that Jethro wants us to learn from these hard moments by showing that in the end everything can work out for good.
At Camp Or L’dor, a Messianic Jewish camp I attend every summer, we go on a three-day adventure trip. These past couple of years we have canoed and kayaked on the Delaware River, and a year prior we backpacked around twenty miles on the Appalachian Trail. Before this trip, I had never backpacked a day in my life. The trip started off quite well—okay, maybe just the first five minutes went well. It went downhill from there (no pun intended). I wasn’t at all used to carrying a forty-pound pack on my back. Luckily, the first day was only a mile and a half hike to our campsite. I would love to tell you that the second day was easier, but it was not. The terrain got steeper, and we had to go much farther than the day before (thirteenish miles). Halfway through the day, we stopped for lunch at this beautiful gazebo at a little garden store, which allowed hikers to use the bathroom and take a break. It was wonderful. Then came the second half of the day. We hiked and hiked and finally neared our campsite. But not without another challenge. Toward the end of the day, the sun began to set, and we were all exhausted and starving. What lay in front of us was a steep incline that we needed to hike up in order to get to our campsite. One by one we all made it up the hill through the encouragement of our counselors and our fellow campers. Once we arrived we laughed and made dinner together.
Then that night, something crazy happened. The campsite was on a hill. My fellow campers and I had placed our tent on that hill, and we figured it was okay not to put our tent stakes in the ground because we were going to be inside it. At around 6 a.m. my friends and I awakened to the sound of laughter coming from our counselor who was taking pictures of us in the tent. At first, we were confused, then we realized that our tent had completely flipped over with us still in it. We all started to laugh as we got out of the tent to pack it up for our last day of hiking. Our last day was amazing; the terrain was mainly flat and we were all still in a good mood. We finished hiking the trail way earlier than expected, and, because it was the last day, we feasted on all the food that was left over as we waited to be picked up.
That trip was one of the best experiences of my life, and I learned to focus on the good and not the bad. I believe I grew from all the hard moments. Any time someone asks if I want to go backpacking, I jump at the chance because I never know what adventure I might have.
Paul reminds us, “Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). All things do truly work out for good, especially when you are willing to take the time to reflect on the small moments in your life when God's lovingkindness and joy overpowers the unpleasant moments. If we can focus on the littlest happy moments, the small bits of good can outweigh the effects of the bad, and help us reflect and grow.
Like Jethro, we can exclaim, “Blessed be Adonai, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians” (Exod 18:10). Jethro's example reminds us to focus on the good because, ultimately, we will remember the challenges but the positive moments will always stick with us. I could have focused on the steep hill and rough terrain, but the pleasurable moments like the encouragement of my counselors, the time with my friends, the joy of putting a tent on the hill and it tumbling down only hours later, and the amazing terrain and views were things worthy of praise to God. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).
All Scripture references are from the Tree of Life Version, TLV.