I worked at a four-star hotel in a resort area for eight years. Every day, I watched our bellhops interact with arriving and departing guests. As cars were unloaded and loaded, I saw all types and sizes of luggage. Over time, I learned how to identify the kind of traveler we hosted by glimpsing their bell cart.
Beach toys and backpacks? Young family. Plastic bags overflowing with snack food and soft drinks? Family with teens. Bottle of champagne? Empty nester getting away. Hanging wardrobe bag and laptop briefcase? Definitely all business.
I’ve often thought about what people carry during their travels through life. We can begin the trip with exactly what we need, like a solid foundation in Scripture knowledge or happy and healthy relationships with loved ones. Or we can overpack instead of trusting that God will have the proper provision at the right time.
And then there are the stops along the way where we inadvertently pick up baggage that slows down our journeys. Like residual hurt from a broken relationship, worry over what tomorrow holds, or even guilt from our missteps and mistakes. Sometimes this new baggage is more of a control issue. We may feel desperate not to be caught off guard by whatever life throws our way, so we add buffers for those just-in-case events.
From life issues to disappointments to a need to control, Jesus understands many things burden us. But when He calls us to follow Him, He asks us to trade our burdens and our excess baggage of hurt, worry, guilt, and control for His—an easy and light burden. But more than that, it will also be precisely what we need to carry for the journey.
What is some baggage you need to unload?
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com.)
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Felicia achieved master's degrees in healthcare administration and Speech-Language Pathology but has written since childhood and dreamed of authoring books that teach and inspire others. An award-winning fiction and non-fiction freelance writer, she is the past president of the Destin chapter of Word Weavers International and a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Her radio devotional, Build Faith for the Journey, airs Saturdays on Christian Mix 106. As a child, Felicia lived in Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana before her family settled on a horse and cattle farm in Kentucky. For the past ten years, though, she soaked up the Florida sun. But then God moved her once again. This time out of the South and into the mountains of Colorado. When she’s not glued to her laptop, Felicia enjoys hiking, meandering with her twelve-year-old Frenchie, and looking forward to the next story.