May I Take Your Bags?

If you hang around churches or around church people long enough, you will hear a person or two hundred complain about their "baggage." This is more than just a an effort to transfer responsibility for current difficulties. There really are issues with which many of us currently suffer that can be traced to influences that began in our past. But sooner or later we have to make our actions and decisions our own; perhaps even our faith.

As convenient as it may be to play the blame game, sooner or later it comes time to own up to things. If one continues to to transfer responsibility to others they live a hollow existence and deny the responsibility God expects us to use through free will.

One cannot completely deny this concept of "baggage." If anyone claims not to have some sort of baggage they are lying. But by design, baggage is intended to prepare us for a journey; not prohibit it. The journey metaphor is strong in my mind and it seems tragic when we stifle our opportunity to engage in it. If we use the excuse of our past as the reason we are unable to progress or thrive we are choosing to carry so much baggage that we are unable to move. Rather what we should do is travel more lightly, or better yet, cast our burdens on Him and let Him carry us.

It is in this that I can see the logic in the statement, "my yoke is easy, my burden is light." It is not some cavalier notion that following Christ is a completely lighthearted existence and we can expect an easy life as a follower of Christ; quite the contrary. In this world we will have trouble. Bad things will happen. Our baggage will at times grow legs and attempt to overtake us- no matter how bad we want to leave it behind. But in the end, there is freedom in simply trusting in Him. There is an easier way than trying to make sense of everything on our own. We can "simply" trust in Him. There is a better way than trying to conform to the beliefs of others instead of seeking a relationship with God built on more than history or tradition. There is a better way than trying to understand why bad things happen. Sometimes all that can be too great a load to carry. Though I cannot always make myself remember this as well as I would like, sometimes I must just simply trust in Him. To carry this anaolgy way too far, perhaps I should check my baggage with Christ and just travel with a trust that says He will always be in control. And even if it is a snug fit for the overhead bin or contains Living Water, it will still allow me to carry on.

(Sorry 'bout that last one. It was pretty bad.)