This week I’ve been thinking about our baggage. Not the Samsonite ones that we carry with us to the airport. Not that kind. I’m talking about the things, ideas, ideals, thoughts, hurts, wounds, emotions, fantasies, and opinions that we all carry with us, sometimes consciously, but usually and oftentimes subconsciously.
When you go to the airport and check in your bags to put on the plane, they ask you to put it on a scale to measure the weight of the bag. I often wonder if we know how much our psychological baggage weighs? My guess would be most of us don’t have any clue how heavy it actually is. Most of the time we don’t even know we’re carrying around this heavy load because it’s been around for most of our lives. Usually, we don’t realize that our subconscious surreptitiously packs away little things here and there in our baggage. When someone says something that wounds us, even if it was meant in levity, in the baggage it goes. When something scary happens to us, in the baggage it goes. When someone does something we don’t like, in it goes. And on and on.
Since it’s usually little things over time, we don’t notice the additional net weight until it weighs heavily on us. But even then, we don’t know what to do with it all, so we just lug it around. Sometimes what we carry around causes us, for reasons we can scarcely explain, to lash out against people that love us. Sometimes it causes us to do things that we know we shouldn’t do, like drugs, risky behavior, pornography. Sometimes, it even causes us to withdraw far inside ourselves, shunning others. What we’ve packed away can harm us and the people in our lives in so many different ways.
At the end of the day, it’s heavy and cumbersome. We’re tired from expending all the energy just carrying it around. We need a place to drop it off before it threatens our health and mental well-being. Fortunately, there is one such place: at the feet of the Lord. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus said that because he knew the Psalmist was truthful when he proclaimed in Psalm 68:19, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”
So, if you’re struggling, come to church on Sundays and listen to Howard’s sermon series on STRESS. Come to Monday Night Life and learn how to THRIVE by learning how to train your brain to break free from addictions and poor behavior. It’s finally time to check your baggage. Give it to the Lord who will weigh it and empty it. In the death of Jesus Christ, God has given you a claim ticket to pick up HIS yoke for it is easy and light.
See you next week and may God bless you this week!
– Matt
baggageburdencarryJesusMatthewPsalmstressyoke
Baggage Claim
November 6, 2008
Calvary
Comments Off on Baggage Claim
Matt
This week I’ve been thinking about our baggage. Not the Samsonite ones that we carry with us to the airport. Not that kind. I’m talking about the things, ideas, ideals, thoughts, hurts, wounds, emotions, fantasies, and opinions that we all carry with us, sometimes consciously, but usually and oftentimes subconsciously.
When you go to the airport and check in your bags to put on the plane, they ask you to put it on a scale to measure the weight of the bag. I often wonder if we know how much our psychological baggage weighs? My guess would be most of us don’t have any clue how heavy it actually is. Most of the time we don’t even know we’re carrying around this heavy load because it’s been around for most of our lives. Usually, we don’t realize that our subconscious surreptitiously packs away little things here and there in our baggage. When someone says something that wounds us, even if it was meant in levity, in the baggage it goes. When something scary happens to us, in the baggage it goes. When someone does something we don’t like, in it goes. And on and on.
Since it’s usually little things over time, we don’t notice the additional net weight until it weighs heavily on us. But even then, we don’t know what to do with it all, so we just lug it around. Sometimes what we carry around causes us, for reasons we can scarcely explain, to lash out against people that love us. Sometimes it causes us to do things that we know we shouldn’t do, like drugs, risky behavior, pornography. Sometimes, it even causes us to withdraw far inside ourselves, shunning others. What we’ve packed away can harm us and the people in our lives in so many different ways.
At the end of the day, it’s heavy and cumbersome. We’re tired from expending all the energy just carrying it around. We need a place to drop it off before it threatens our health and mental well-being. Fortunately, there is one such place: at the feet of the Lord. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus said that because he knew the Psalmist was truthful when he proclaimed in Psalm 68:19, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”
So, if you’re struggling, come to church on Sundays and listen to Howard’s sermon series on STRESS. Come to Monday Night Life and learn how to THRIVE by learning how to train your brain to break free from addictions and poor behavior. It’s finally time to check your baggage. Give it to the Lord who will weigh it and empty it. In the death of Jesus Christ, God has given you a claim ticket to pick up HIS yoke for it is easy and light.
See you next week and may God bless you this week!
– Matt
Share this:
baggageburdencarryJesusMatthewPsalmstressyoke