Baggage

Have you ever flew somewhere and then after reaching your final destination you go to baggage claim to get your baggage and you wait and wait until you realize they lost or misplaced your baggage? I've had it happen a couple times, not fun. Luckily it was when I arrived at home, so I wasn't stuck somewhere without clean clothes and I ended up getting my luggage a day or two later.

Life's baggage is a little different. Instead of losing it, we accumalate it. As we go through life and it's experiences we collect baggage and as we continue to live our lives it can really add up and weigh us down if we are not removing it.

Things happen in our lives whether by our doing or someone else's and we begin to carry emotional and mental baggage. Death, divorce, tragedy, loss, hurt feelings, betrayal, lies, gossip, slander, job loss, bad grades, getting cut from the team, break-ups, and the list is plentiful of the things that happen in our lives that leave us bruised, broken, tainted, scarred, and numb: Baggage. It piles up.

If we don't deal with these issues or learn to recover and heal from them, they can really weigh us down and drag our lives in a direction we don't want to go. Undealt with baggage can cause a strain on our relationships, affect new relationships, cause tension, misunderstanding, more hurt feelings, and more confusion, and endless brokenness. Whether it's loved ones, family, children, parents, significant others, co-workers, or classmates.

I don't expect to give you a simple answer in a weekly devotional on how to dump all your baggage at once, but I can challenge you to start moving forward in the right direction today. First, be honest with yourself and admit you have baggage. Secondly, realize what baggage you've caused and where the source of other baggage came from. Thirdly, begin seeking God through prayer and scripture to help you deal with the hurt, anger, pain, depression, and resentment that you might have because of it. Fourthly, find ways to cope, deal, or address issues. Whether that is reading books, attending or serving in church, researching topics on the internet, talking with friends or minister's, or seeking professional or medical help. Fifthly, make an effort to not sabotage, neglect, blame, or hurt current or future relationships because of past pain and baggage.

You have to start somewhere and it may be one piece of baggage at a time, but the more steps you take to get rid of it the lighter your load, the healthier you'll be and feel, and the better your relationships with others will become in the present and future. You can overcome, you can heal, you can lose your baggage, and losing this type of baggage is a good thing. Today is the day.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on the rock and gave me a firm place to stand."
Psalm 40:1-2(NIV)