Don't Carry it...

I have travelled a lot this year. I have been to a lot of beautiful places. With each trip I have had to pack a bag. Now I try to never check a bag, with the way things are going at the airport these days, checking a bag seems SUPER RISKY, will I ever see those clothes again....who knows!!

I tend to only bring a piece of carry on luggage and I pack that thing in a way that would make Marie Kondo proud. So much joy with every t-shirt that I fold into a little package.

So in my carry on luggage I have put my clothes, toiletries etc. knowing that when I get to my destination I will unpack this bag. Now truth be told, I tend to live out of my luggage....rarely do I fully unpack until I get back home.

I was thinking about my travels and this piece of luggage I carry with me, and I got thinking about the fact that every time I come home I unpack it, and it becomes empty.

I got thinking about the other types of baggage we carry. We have been packing our emotional bags since we were little haven't we. We have something spoken to or about us, and we put it in the bag. We have a relationship that causes us hurt, and we pack parts of that into this bag. We have people leave our lives, and we end up putting pieces, memories of them in that bag.

For some of us we pack that bag MIGHTY full, we have to sit on it just to close it up, and fear that it might bust open at any moment. Then we carry the full weight of this bag around with us, we don't check it, it is our carry on luggage. We carry it into other relationships, jobs, experiences etc.

We tend to go through life and continue to jam more into this bag, slamming ourselves down on it again and again so we can get that zipper closed one more time, so we can tuck away the hurts and the pain that we can't seem to let go of.

But here's the thing about luggage, it isn't meant to be carried around forever, it's meant to be unpacked. While we might have taken time to neatly pack this bag, we have meticulously stored those hurts, memories, and pain. It isn't serving us to carry it around.

Can I encourage you to sit down with that baggage, and open it up. Take time with each piece you have put in it, honour it, acknowledge the reason you put it in their in the first place and then fully unpack it. Get rid of it!

You might need help unpacking this bag, maybe your spouse, a trusted friend or even a therapist can help you. But here's what I know, unpacking that bag is always easier when you talk about it. When you deal with whatever it is that you have been carrying around.

The weight of that bag was never meant for you to carry. The burden of that piece of baggage can be one that you release and don't pick up again.

For me knowing that God has got me, that He knows all the things in that bag. That He gives me the space to take what I have been carrying around, to unpack it and give it to Him, so I never have to deal with it again. It's a gift, one that I don't take lightly. A gift that is extended to me again and again.

Friend, I hope that you will take the time to unpack that baggage you have been carrying, to let it go and to lay it down knowing that you never have to pick it up again.

Psalm 55:22