The Bags Were Too Heavy

When I was in my early teens our family moved to a little town on Vancouver Island, it was a peaceful, beautiful little town with the ocean on one side and a stunning forest on the other. Back then there was not a whole lot going on around us. We had tourists in the summer but unless you were into touristy things there wasn’t much excitement in it. At least not as a young teenager.

I remember the day my sisters came back from college so they could spend the summer with us in our new home. I was so excited to show them around and tell them all about the baby sharks that infested the waters below our house. I could hardly wait to take them down to the beach at low tide so they could walk a mile out into the ocean. And then again at high tide when you could walk a mile out into the ocean and it was still only knee deep.

All of a sudden the little town that I thought was boring was exciting.

The summer went by quickly and it was time for them to hop on a little plane and fly to Seattle where they would catch a bigger plane back to Virginia.  As the pilot came over to welcome the passengers and load the bags.  He reached for my sister’s suitcase and, commenting on the sheer size of the bag, he seemed concerned about whether or not it would fit. Then he went to pick it up and found it to be very heavy.

He stood for a moment looking at the bag, the plane, my sister, and the bag again. Finally he had to make the decision that due to the size and weight of the bag she was not going to be able to board the plane with it. He did not want to jeopardize the safety of the other passengers by overloading the plane. She would forfeit her seat to another passenger because the weight of her bag was too much for the plane.

In that moment a decision was made that due to the amount of baggage my sister was carrying with her, she was not going to be able to get where she was trying to go.

How wonderfully this experience ties in with life. I imagine we have all experienced a situation where our emotional baggage has stopped us from being able to participate in something we really want, or need to participate in. I can think of times in my own life where my baggage has completely blocked me and left me feeling beaten down and discouraged.

Scripture tells us that we can give our heavy load over to the Lord and He will take them.  In Psalm 81:6-7 we read, “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you. I answered you out of a thundercloud. “

And in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

Christ knows our burdens are heavy, He knows each and every item we carry around with us in our baggage and He wants to free us from the weight of all of them. All we have to do is give it to Him. He is ready and waiting with open hands and open arms. We don’t have to carry the weight of our baggage even a second longer.

Easier said than done, believe me I know. But through faith, intentional prayer, and specific requests we can drop our bags at the foot of the cross and continue on our journey without the crippling weight of an unnecessary burden.

Lord give me the faith to freely let loose of my emotional baggage and give it all to You so I can experience the fullness of the life for which You created me.

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