TEBO TALES and INSPIRATION

Celebrating a Spirit-led Life of RVing and Service

by Carol Tebo

So many times my husband and I sat in our living room watching a report on the evening news about a natural disaster in our country, and said, "Wouldn't it be great to be able to pick up and go help those people?"  In those words were the seeds of a vision of how we wanted to be living our lives.  However, it took many years to make the leap from a vision to reality.  Had we known then what we now know, we would have made it much sooner.

It is my contention that God's axioms are just the opposite of man's. We say: "Cover all your bases." "Be sure all your ducks are in a row."  "Look before you leap."   Yet Jesus tells us that there is no way to cover all your bases or to be sure all your ducks are in a row.  In fact, He advises us, when it comes to following the spirit (Matt. 6:33).  He says not to worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34), nor to place our faith in our accumulations on earth (Matt. 6:19).

As I look back over my life, I see that the choices I have made on "impulse" have more often led to a richness and depth of experience, with all its spectrum of joy and pain, than many of my more carefully planned decisions.  I believe these impulses are God's way of moving us forward before all the voices crowd in--those which discourage and admonish us for responding to the impelling, and often seemingly sudden, urge to take a dramatic step or make a drastic change in our lives.

In our analytical, information-saturated age, the word "impulsive" connotes a lack of judicious forethought, or even worse, recklessness. So concerned are we to make the right decision, to plan carefully for our future, to protect ourselves from every possible pain or calamity, and to divine the outcome before we begin, that we spend the majority of our precious life energy and resources preparing to live, and precious little of it actually living.  We spend too much time looking, and consequently, do very little leaping.

So it happened that we were introduced to the idea of full-time RVing by a couple who spent their summers down the road from our camping property in northern New Hampshire.  We believed that such a lifestyle would enable us to fulfill our desire to drastically simplify our lives, and disencumber ourselves from clutter and stuff, meaningless social obligations and rituals, and endless caretaking.  We longed to be free to follow Spirit's lead--to be available and responsive to each moment; to go when we felt led to go; to stay when we felt led to stay; to let nature determine the rhythm of our lives; and to pursue avenues of service and outreach to others more fully. 

Yet, as much as our hearts were pulling us in that direction, we continued to find reasons why it "wasn't the right time." In times of prosperity, we would devise a four-year plan to bring us to our goal.  Then, when unemployment hit, the goal was to find another job so we could start another four-year plan!  We were two years into our latest plan, when circumstances converged to cause us both to recognize that it was time to place our destiny in God's hands, rather than our own.

We had moved back to our home in Salt Lake City after a period of unemployment, and felt our decision was validated when my husband walked into a well-paying job in his field and I quickly secured meaningful employment.  In six months, we completely remodeled our house, groomed our beautiful yard, bought some new furniture, and were ready to settle down into a life of "normalcy." But, normalcy was not what God had in mind for us.  Once again, we gradually became aware that the time and energy spent at work, in traffic, and maintaining our home left little for the things which brought us the deepest satisfaction--serving others and being out in nature.  We began to talk again about RVing.  I invested money in a multi-level marketing program, hoping to derive some extra income to stake our venture, but soon became disenchanted with viewing everyone as a potential customer. 

As summer approached, I began to slip into a depression.  I immediately recognized what was happening and intuitively knew what I needed to do.  I realized my depression was related to trying to control my own life, so I resumed my long-abandoned practice of daily meditation, and gradually things began to come into focus. 

We had recently begun attending the Unity Church in Salt Lake, where the recurring theme of the minister's messages was "Dare to Live Your Dream."  We began to understand that fear of all the "what if's" was the only thing that was keeping us from moving forward.  We often say to people we meet who are where we were then, the real issue is the "S" word--"Security."  Once we were able to acknowledge that all efforts to insure our security are ultimately futile, the rest was easy.

And so, one day, when Larry dragged in from his commute, weary and drained, we looked at each other and said, "What are we doing? It's time!"  -"Set your intention, and trust the Universe to take care of the details"  -our minister, Mike Fotheringham, said many times.  It sounded so simple--and it was!  Divine ideas poured forth to help us expedite the process of preparation and divestment. 

Since our friends in New Hampshire retired from RVing due to health concerns, we bought their campground membership, which for a small annual fee allows us to live year-round in our network.  We took in roomers to help pay down some of our debts, and at the same time were blessed with several mutually enriching relationships.  One roomer's best friend bought our house, without our ever placing an ad!  Then our neighbors began dropping in to buy our furniture.  The rest of our stuff was sold in a garage sale, given away, or shipped to our children.  Our remaining business fell into place just as readily.

Of course, many friends and relatives were astounded at our seemingly impulsive decision.  How could we give it all up when things seemed to be going "our way?"  What a shame to leave our beautifully remodeled house and our new furniture.  Had we lost our senses?  No, as a matter of fact, we had finally come to them!

During the nine months of preparation, I had envisioned just how I would fit everything we needed into our 24-foot trailer.  We and our cat lived cozily and happily in it for a year.  The next summer we spent at our camp in New Hampshire, and the opportunity presented itself to purchase a used 30-foot trailer in mint condition, which had all the additional living space we could ever want.  We were able to sell our "baby trailer," for an excellent price and affectionately bid it farewell.

We have been on the road for two years now, living our dream.  Yes, we have had some challenges, but they have been a small price to pay for our freedom and serenity.  We have had many opportunities to witness to the power of faith to those who say, "We'd like to do that some day."  We find small ways to serve almost daily, and have committed large amounts of our time to building homes with Habitat for Humanity.  The vision and commitment of Habitat's founder, Millard Fuller, is one of the most inspiring examples of the power of faith in action.

I am composing this article in a room at a large Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama.  We are "camped" behind the gym while we work five days a week contributing to the clean-up effort in the wake of the devastating tornadoes that decimated numerous nearby communities.  This time we didn't have to say, "We wish we could be there to help."  We're here for as long as we can be of service, and we will be back in a few months to help rebuild with Habitat for Humanity.

The most important lesson we have learned from our journey of faith is that the first step must be taken by us.  We can never know what has been placed in our dowry unless we open the chest.  Until we made the commitment and began to act on it, we were unable to see the possibilities.  Doors continue to open, and opportunities present themselves, that we could never have anticipated until we crossed the bridge from fear to trust.  How could we have known there were many others who shared our dream and were also living it out? 

By some people's standards, we live very precariously.  Yet I've never felt more secure in my life.  I know my real security is in God alone.  After two weeks of hauling wheelbarrows full of people's mangled possessions to the roadside, and taking apart the remains of their homes board by board, it is abundantly clear that all things on this earth are temporary and can be swept away in a few harrowing moments.  It often takes such a crisis for people to see the low priority of their possessions, and to understand that their true treasures lie in the things that are unseen.

No one could have expressed it better than Anthony, a member of one of twenty families to receive a Habitat home in Americus, Georgia, as a result of a blitz build during Holy Week this year.  As he spoke to the new homeowners during the Easter sunrise service, he implored them to give as much attention to their spiritual homes as they would be giving to their new physical homes.  "For in the end," he said, "your spiritual home is all you will have."

Published in Unity Magazine, October 1998.