Pack lightly…because baggage gets heavier with each step.
When I traveled recently, I did my very best to pack lightly and be reasonable in my choices of clothing and accessories. I wanted to be sure I had what I needed. After all, we were traveling across the world and it was unlikely there would be a Walmart I could run out to if I’d forgotten a necessity. I definitely wanted to include the necessary toiletries, and medications and I comfortably had the room in my luggage for them.
Overall, I felt pretty proud of myself that I’d managed to carefully select appropriate outfits I would need, wisely planning to interchange tops and pants, creating more ensembles out of few items. Travel tip side note: A handy tipster enlightened me that Parisians often wear outfits two days in a row, so mixing and matching would certainly suffice. But even as sparingly as I had managed to pack, the day we left I threw in extra pants and dress boots “just in case.” For eight days and two countries, I felt I had done nicely packing one decent-sized suitcase, a carry on, and a messenger bag that I would carry everywhere with the super essentials like Passport, Euros, ID, debit card, camera, and phone.
I was clipping along rather nicely through airports #1 and #2 as we landed in Paris. When we boarded the plane to Rome a few days later I was feeling decent, but by the time we prepared to fly from Rome back to Paris, I was really wishing I’d packed lighter or had one less bag. I especially started to rue a third bag when we barely made our returning flight from Paris. I don’t run under normal circumstances so when we had to engage in a full-on sprint through Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport a significant distance after having left our hotel in Rome at 3:15 a.m. and already having flown two hours and navigated one airport, I had full-on disdain for my carry-on bag.
As I ran heaving my heavy winter coat (we were about to re-enter winter weather…goodbye warm Rome!) in my arms, my “necessities” messenger bag dragging off my shoulder, and my carry-on rolling and bouncing wildly behind me, I felt as if I might pass out. I was exhausted from getting up in the middle of the night and we’d already traveled and walked a considerable distance through two large airports. It felt like we were running for our lives to make our flight home. And we so wanted to go home. My daughter and I loved our adventure so much. Still, we missed my son and my husband, our beds, our pups, our friends, and home.
It was a real test of my mettle to haul myself and all my baggage through the airport dodging fellow travelers and baggage carts with the threat of missing our flight being very real. I was mentally chastising myself for bringing along unnecessary baggage. It wasn’t bad at the beginning but it had begun to wear me down. Though it weighed the same, it became increasingly heavy. With every step I took, the burden grew more painful and more difficult to bear. It was exhausting. It was too much.
Isn’t this so true of many things in our lives? We carry unnecessary baggage. That past hurt or unforgiveness might not feel so bad at first. It’s tolerable. You can handle it. But as time goes on, it feels heavier and heavier. The load starts to affect us in other ways. Our relationships are strained. Our health is compromised. The pain of the burden occupies our time and our thought life and we can begin to obsess over it.
Matthew 11:28 says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
How do you like the sound of that? Isn’t it like fresh air on a spring day? Jesus is telling us to bring Him our burdens, our problems, our hurts (past or present, old or fresh), anxieties, worries, fears, regrets, shame, all of the things that are weighing us down and preventing us from being what He means for us to be. Do it. It’s a great offer, isn’t it? Just bring it to Him, leave it all at His feet, dump it all on Him, and He will give you rest. You’ll need it after carrying all that unnecessary “stuff” around, whatever your “stuff” looks like. We’re meant to travel lightly. Let Him carry your baggage.
What’s burdening you? What would you love to unload at His feet and simply walk away from it?
