Baggage

It’s impossible to travel without baggage. We need luggage, bags, boxes, and the like to put all of our stuff in. There has to be one for the toiletry items. Another one may be needed for hair care products. Let’s not forget the make up that makes us pretty. Then, there has to be a place for our shoes and clothes. Most likely there will be a bag with some junk food to hold us over as we travel.

I wonder what we could find if we were allowed to help TSA check baggage at an airport. I’ve read of some of the items they find. I imagine for some people it would be rather embarrassing. For others it may even lead to arrest.

Baggage. We all have baggage. Not just the kind that we use for traveling, but the kind that becomes a part of us as we live life. The longer I’m in ministry, the more I see the effects of baggage in a person’s life. As I counsel pastors, church leaders, troubled spouses, and family members, the more I realize what baggage can do.

Baggage can destroy a marriage. It can divide parents and children. A church can become dysfunctional due to baggage. Friendships can be destroyed. Baggage is like a cancer that is secretly eating away at us.

For some the baggage comes from a dysfunctional childhood.  Sadly, lots of families don’t understand true love and how to show it to others. Baggage may be the result of unconfessed sin. Harsh words from loved ones can weigh us down with baggage. What about that supervisor who tells us how sorry we are at our job? You get the picture? Our baggage knows no end of its source.

I wish that I could make every person whom I talk with understand and deal with their baggage. I wish I could help them to deal biblically with what has brought them to where they are. If only I could force spouses to lay aside the baggage that plagues them.

How do we handle baggage? How do we move from it? For some the answer is multi-faceted. They may need counseling. There may be a need to confront someone from their past. An understanding of personal accountability goes a long way. And, undergirding all of this, I believe rests the need to place our trust and faith in Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. Once we accept His forgiveness plus understand that His grace is sufficient, I believe that we can move on with our lives.

Please, today, unload ALL of your baggage. Leave it all at His feet and start a new journey. Don’t be weighed down with the past.

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

as far as the east is from the west,
     so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12