This post has been in the making for months at this point. I've had alot of my mind lately. Mostly the travel that's ahead of me. I'll be going to Guatemala in a week and at the end of this month I'll be in Italy doing research. With all of this travel right around the corner I've been thinking about my baggage. What do I pack? What do I NOT need to pack? What's in our baggage is important and when we get to our destination we anticipate our baggage at the baggage claim. This type of baggage can be helpful, but what about the type of baggage that isn't so good? The extra unnecessary stuff.
You know when you're in the plane waiting to take off and all of the sudden there's an announcement that the baggage area is too full, there's too much weight. It's one of the most annoying announcements. Didn't people read the info about how much baggage they are allowed? Why did the check-in desk let people check more weight than necessary? This is the bad baggage I'm talking about.
Baggage. We all have it. We all have justifiable reasons for having baggage. We've been hurt in relationships by family, friends, significant others. We've had a difficult upbringing. We just weren't loved enough. Doubts creep in as well adding to the weight: Are we ever good enough? What's my worth? All of these things can help us pile up a big mound of baggage.
We hate it and we love it. We hate it because our baggage is the very thing that weighs us down, yet our actions show we love it because we continue to drag it all around with us. We'll even drag it half way across the globe. The phrase "he/she has baggage" has been kind of a funny one for me to explain in Spanish. It would be, "el o ella tiene equipaje o maletas." I go on to describe what that means exactly. Our baggage is often emotional, spiritual, mental or all of the above. And it truly weighs us down like physical baggage does.
You may be asking why I'm talking about baggage or why I've been explaining this to my friends here in Spain. I guess I'm asking myself the same thing. One thing I'm seeing is that we all have our own baggage. Some people have more than others. Some people's baggage is heavier or has had more severe effects on one's life. Nonetheless it affects us all. It affects how we relate to our world. It affects how we relate to our God. And I think that's what's most important to me. Have I let my junk or baggage be a stumbling block in my relationship with the Lord? And what does that mean for other things in my life?
One thing I've seen over and over again in the lives of friends my age or even older is this carrying of our baggage. We've yet to unpack the bag and deal with the mess that's inside. In some strange way we carry it with us as our excuse to act a certain way. We use it to show our suffering, but not quite in the best way that glorifies God. Alot of the problem with the baggage is we rummage through it, stir up the mess again, repack it, and drag it along for yet another trip.
At what point do we unpack it, hand it over to the Lord, and WALK AWAY?! This is something I'm wondering myself. I wouldn't count my life as being very traumatic, but I still carry some bad situations with me. And no, I'm not even talking about the most obvious recent thing that people may think about with this accident. Even though I physically carry that quite a bit. I guess I've been wondering about some of the other junk. Junk that I thought I worked through. Maybe I have walked away from the baggage and Satan has recently thrown it in my path for me to stumble over. Who knows? But I do need to know how to deal with it. It holds me down and back from the Lord's work.
I've seen this as I talked to friends. Girls and guys. I've heard people express this in relationships and other circumstances in their lives. It looks like this: I'm broken. I'm no longer good enough. Maybe I'm too far gone. Maybe because of this I shouldn't get married. What if I'm not cut out for this? What if I turn out like my parents? I've messed up too many times. Maybe love like that doesn't exist.
All of those things lead to the thought that I can't be used by God. Paralyzed. Weighed down and immovable because of our junk that we can't seem to let go of. Really, a clever plan by Satan. We become engrossed and obsessed with our baggage, and we forget to lift our heads up to look around us. To rise up to lead and serve as God would have us to.
One thing I'm learning over and over again is that this world is full of heartache. We will be hurt and we will hurt others. We will see pain and we will experience it. We are guaranteed suffering if we choose to follow Christ. So all that said, if I'm going to face these tough things in life, I need to learn to do so while not holding onto my grief. While not clinging tightly to my "right" to feel hurt and broken all the while pointing my finger at the person or situation that has inflicted the pain. Somehow I have to let God in to heal. I must invite the Holy Spirit to cleanse me of this pain and hurt.
And He does indeed heal us. Is it a process? Yes. Does Satan like to throw our stuff back in our face every once in awhile? You bet. So we have to throw it back at him, and tell him to get out of our way. We have to run back to God, because holding onto this stuff isn't helping us. And it's not furthering His kingdom if we are standing in the midst of it not moving forward.
I'm not saying to just pretend that you've worked through these things. Do what you need to seek out fellowship, accountability, counseling, reconciliation, whatever, so that we can get to work. So we can get to doing HIS work. It's hard. I'm working on dropping off my baggage too. Sometimes I want to hold onto it out of spite. This isn't what God wants for me though. My baggage only brings me down and pulls me away from the healing touch of God.
One day, my brother and I were talking about baggage. He asked me about a friend I have, and I just shared with him that this friend has alot of baggage. Darren laughed and said, "We all have baggage! Help a weary traveler out!" Darren is right. Let's walk alongside our brothers and sisters praying for them, praying with them, so that they too can leave their baggage behind. Let us press forward leaving everything behind so that our goal is in front of us. Let us boldly carry the beautiful message of the Gospel to those around us. This life is too short to be held down.
Are you ready for takeoff?
Taryn
