My mindset has changed about many things since coming on the World Race and you’ve gotten to watch from across the pond. This month proved to be a lot slower paced than previous months, but my team leader dubbed it a month of “rest and revelations”. God blessed us with time to pour into his Word and one another. He’s been teaching us all along how to see the divine in the ordinary, but this month it’s especially true.
To borrow from an AJ Cheek song, this month for me has been “the art of letting go”. And one area that I see that hugely is in my backpack.
When I left in January, I had a LOT of stuff. My logic was that “one day I might need this”. So I carried this stuff around for months.
Little by little, month by month, I found myself leaving little things behind. Mosquito net, pillow, a couple shirts here, a pair of pants there… But I was still holding onto a lot.
During each month, it’s easy to accumulate more things. But on those travel days when you have to pack it all up and carry it around for days, you really start to resent it. You reevaluate the concept of “need” and you swear that the next time you’re getting rid of everything but your tent and one outfit.
But, as with humans, once you’re settled somewhere for another month, the memory of the burdensome pack gives way to the insatiable desire for more.
I remember one day finding a really cool souvenir. But finally, something clicked and I said, “nah, it’s not worth the weight”.
You see, you start to value things very differently when you know you have to carry them. And now, wrapping up my sixth month on the Race, I find myself getting rid of things I’ve needlessly held onto.
But this is way more important than a release of material possessions. The lesson that I learned here is one Jesus has been telling us all along. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “throw off anything that entangles us and run with endurance the race that is set before us.” And elsewhere, Christ says “come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
So if your spiritual load is heavy, I can tell you what you’re carrying around isn’t Jesus. Maybe it’s a relationship or past hurt or some other thing you’ve asked (in vain) to define you. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t belong.
In the beginning it seemed like a good idea, like something you “needed” but now that you’ve been carrying it around long enough, it’s wearing you down.
This leaves us with two choices friends:
1. Identify the excess baggage and discard it, knowing your identity is in Christ alone
OR
2. Keep walking through life, weighed down and exhausted by unnecessary things…
You choose.
