Nearly every piece of luggage I own is broken. It is not broken because it is cheap luggage, but because I pack it well beyond capacity, busting the zippers, tearing the seams. I do this to suitcases, backpacks, make-up bags, and purses. You think I’d learn.
I seem to have a problem with “stuff.” When I come home for a week at Christmas I pack my car full. I pack the trunk, the back seat, the front seat and usually find that I’m left with the fact that it just won’t all fit.
As I move each year from one apartment to another, I find that my “stuff” has grown once again. And despite the use of a trailer, SUV, and car to move my mountain of belongings, it just won’t fit.
Needless to say, moving or packing is an anxiety provoking experience as there’s always too much stuff.
Though busting at the seams, no zippers have broken yet, no seams have torn.
It wasn’t until last weekend as we packed up our things to fly to Malaybalay where we will be for the next month that I realized all that stuff I packed into my 50lb pack turned out to be even more than I needed– so I lightened my load for the month.
I’m hoping that as I left some of the physical “stuff”-some of the physical baggage- behind for the month, I also left behind some of the emotional “stuff”-the emotional baggage- that I just don’t need. I left behind lies, because in my heart and in my mind, it just won’t all fit. So I left behind the lie that I’m not good with kids to fit in the truth that I am great with kids and was made to share God’s heart with orphans. Only because of this truth was I able to meet and play with my new friends from the children’s home. I left behind the doubts I had in my ability to be a “good missionary” as it is defined in my mind.
Like my pack, my heart was busting at the seams, about to tear, and all that “stuff” just wouldn’t all fit. So into this first official month of ministry I’ve taken with me what I need physically and emotionally and have left behind what is not essential. This month is going to be awesome. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us.
