BAGGAGE

By Barbara Chadwick

We waited for friends at baggage claim – hugs all around when they came. While we waited for their bags they told us about the English camp where they had taught in Slovakia. The crates came around the baggage belt.  They weren’t crates, of course, they were just very big suitcases. J The girls, Katie and Colleen, hefted them out to the car. With quite a bit of rearranging we got them in the trunk. It was quite a ways to the car in the parking garage and they were glad to be free of that burden.

 The next morning I cleaned out my purse. The receipts from the airport trip had to be filed. The apple slices and almonds had to be put away. (It is a 2 ½ hour trip to the airport!)  Empty wrappers from the cough drops, breath mints and gum wrappers, used Kleenex, a note with time and flight #, Gas X  (you can’t leave home without it!)  Then I rearranged my wallet, date book, cell phone, scripture cards, travel toothbrush and toothpaste and make-up items and shook out the lint, etc. You can clearly see that the purse -  the bag is vital.

So then I began to think about the baggage we carry around inside our heads. Heavy things - hurts like parental neglect or mistreatment (may have been unintentional but there nonetheless), children who have gone astray, slams by friends or relatives, lost opportunities, and shattered dreams. Or it might be our own sin that burdens us. These kinds of things stay in our minds and grow like mold. They wreck havoc with our health and emotions. They become crates in our mental and emotional psyche. Most of the time we feel that we have them buried. Out of sight - out of mind we say.

Not so. They keep going around in our sub-conscious mind like the crates on the baggage belt. We have to find a way to throw them out. Shake them out, if you will, like the trash in the bag. One great way to do that is to write it out. The whole thing. Every detail. Every nuance. Then burn the paper! That's right. Burn it up. Because if you continue to carry it, you will experience stress, illness, cynicism and a heavy heart. Let it go! Be free of it! Let God fill your life with freedom and abundant joy.

When I put the trash from my bag into the trash compactor, take it to the dumpster where it is taken to the dump. I will never see it again. It is gone!

You know, that is what God does with our sin:  He forgives all your sins…redeems your life from the pit (where you’ve gone with your baggage!) …crowns you with love and compassion…satisfies your desires with good things so that your path is renewed like the eagle’s. (Joy!)  Now look at verse 12: As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Freedom!) Psalm 103:3-5;12.