Baggage

This morning I have been thinking about and dealing with the baggage of other people....all the stuff we carry around from our lives that weighs us down and causes problems. I've been thinking about a very troubled person who made an appointment to see me yesterday and then didn't show up and now blames me for not having time for them. Excuses are a great way to hold onto all your baggage....if you don't ever have to sort through all the stuff you carry around you won't ever have to admit how silly it is to continue to carry it. We all do this...we all have baggage....issues, things, thoughts, habits, feelings, hurts, attitudes we have carried with us because of something someone did...someone said OR didn't do or say. It doesn't matter the source, we are a race that loves to keep baggage and to be honest with you...I must tell you....it's all junk! The stuff we carry around hurts our lives, our relationships, our walk with God, our happiness, our success, our todays and our tomorrows.....it's all junk! Why do we continue to hold onto it? Why do we grasp our "junk" so tightly and refuse to let it go? I think the main reason is that we are broken, foolish hurting people who think our junk has great value and so we hold onto it. As I write this I think about C.S. Lewis' words in his book, The Great Divorce, where he describes just such a situation with a poor soul holding onto her baggage even after death...unwilling to let go of it because "she has every right to feel that way." And in that story C.S. Lewis saw our problem clearly- it's our rights, our pride, our selfishness that makes us hold onto our baggage even when we clearly see that it's all just junk! Often, as I look at others and try to help them (I include myself in this commentary by the way) I see such broken people still proudly trying to bear up under their load of junk. Why won't we let it go? We truly think we have every right to our feelings, our hurts, our scars, our woes...and so proudly we bear them and refuse to bring them to the only one who can relieve us of these great loads of junk.....Jesus himself. (A side note- Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan deals with this topic well.) I wish the person that caused these rambling thoughts this morning would be willing to let go of their baggage, but sadly, because I hit a nerve and threatened to help them with their cargo, they have chosen to avoid me at all cost.....imagine that....avoid me, the very person who wants to help lighten their load. But like the dear woman in C.S. Lewis' book this person, I'm sure, feels every right to their baggage and so will continue to bear it. I wish so badly we could each really understand how significant the words of Jesus are on this topic when he said,

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"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

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