I love airports. I always feel excited when I drive past the airport and I see the planes and I think about all the people coming and going. Sometimes people look happy and sometimes they look sad. But whether people are laughing or crying, saying hello or goodbye, the fact is that they are doing those things out of love. And love is a beautiful thing!
I arrived back in South Africa two weeks ago today so I recently experienced the excitement of being at the airport and, in my case, returning home after 2 years away! But this was probably my least favourite airport experience. Why? you ask. Well, you know sometimes you see that person struggling along with way too much luggage? Dropping everything, completely disorganized and harassed? Well, when I left Korea 384 hours ago – I was that person. That person with all the baggage! On the day that I left Korea I traveled with two wheely suitcases, carrying a third large bag and my handbag – a combined weight of well over 50kg!!! If I dropped a suitcase once, I must have dropped it two dozen times or more…my arms ached, I was covered in bruises. LESSON WELL (hopefully) LEARNT.
Baggage. Luggage. Stuff! So much stuff! (and I can assure you that I contemplated, more than a few times, about the importance of the ‘stuff’ in those bags and whether or not I should simply drop it and go on without it).
So, that’s my literal baggage story. Now to go a bit deeper.
This morning in church, the sermon was about moving from being ‘wounded to whole’ and it was about all the baggage we carry as we travel through life. The verse that we looked at was the prayer that Jesus prayed on the cross “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And how forgiveness is the key to letting go of the baggage in our lives. More about me…
As Brian was talking this morning, and using this analogy of flying through life with all this baggage…I felt like he was literally describing my life over the past 8 or so years. For all those years, I was carrying anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, discontent, insecurities from past hurts that just kept accumulating and that I refused to let go of. I had so much baggage. Looking back over my life now, I can see the effect that that EXCESS baggage had on my life. Before I left for Korea I was angry ALL the time, I never felt truly happy, I was always dissatisfied, I never felt good enough. I became unpleasant to be around. It affected my teaching. It affected my relationships with friends and family.
Going to Korea was a turning point in my life. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I could have worked through the baggage here – but there was something about fulfilling my life-long desire to go overseas that enabled me to get a new perspective on myself.
I have changed in ways that I myself don’t even know yet. But I am lighter. I am happier. I am freer. And not of my own doing–Jesus and I have been walking a long road together. He has always been beside me ready to take the baggage, but for all those years I kept my eyes fixedly ahead determined to carry it all along myself. Instead of hearing and believing Jesus saying to me: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
When I got off the plane in South Africa, I may have been carrying a lot of bags and a lot of literal excess weight – but I was a whole lot lighter. One thing that I know for sure, I would never have said “Yes” to the World Race and this passion that God has awakened in me, had I not been able to let go of all the baggage I was carrying from so many years ago. Now I am ready to board a new plane – God has revealed a new purpose for me and I’m ready to embrace it with arms and heart wide open. Will I gather more baggage – of course. Life is filled with challenges. Life often hands us hurt, disappointment, anger, failure, betrayal; but Jesus says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Jesus has plans for my life. Jesus has plans for your life.
BUT sometimes before we are able to have our eyes opened to those plans, we have to be willing to let go of what we are carrying. Today I hope that you would hear these words “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – hear the words and sort through the stuff. Because God has WAY better stuff in store for you than anything you could possibly be hanging onto in your excess baggage.
