I have spent 13 out of the past 18 months living out of a backpack. From the outside (especially from a Western mindset) this is not your “normal” way of life. Turns out it is not typical to carry everything you own around on your back……..or is it?
On September 29, 2008 I got on a plane with a giant backpack full of what I considered to be “essential” to my survival for 11 months of traveling the globe. And so, for the following 11 months I towed that bad boy around, usually maxing it out at about a whopping 45lbs of things I thought I “couldn’t live without”.
On December 28, 2010 I got on a plane with a giant backpack full of a revised list of “essential” items. I flew that puppy from LA to New Zealand, hauled it ALL OVER Australia, and carted it through Malaysia and Singapore on the way to the Philippines.
If you take a look at the photo, you will note the beast in all it’s glory. As you’ll notice, the pack actually is sitting in the bus seat, not the person. Also, please take note of my face. Do I look like I’m having a fun time? Does the pack look light?
Surely we are all not literally carrying everything we own on our backs BUT somehow the look on my face is oh-so-familiar. We (people…the general population) are champions of carrying so much more than we can handle and I’m not talking physically.
In October 2008 the Lord started to reveal how much I was carrying. As he showed me those things I was able to drop a lot of them at his feet and walk lighter. I dropped unforgiveness, bitterness, pain, anger, control, performance…among other things. I walked more freely as my baggage was reduced. Whew! I never knew how heavy that all was until I put it down!
And so, once again the Lord has used an object lesson to reveal the truth to me. Before leaving the Philippines I got FED UP with the size and weight of my backpack. I decided I would no longer cart that giant 45lb bag around the globe. So I bought a pack almost half the size of the original. I went through all my belongings and scaled back to an even smaller amount.
Now the tricky part here is that as we continue to move through life we have a tendency to pick up more to pack onto our back. For whatever reason this is our nature. So, likewise I literally packed my bag to leave January 2010 with the same quantity of things I took in 2008, but the Lord has continued to faithfully reveal the size of my load to me. Turns out I still brought some crap I don’t need even after setting so much down before.
Like the physical I have recognized the weight of the stuff I was still holding onto…selfishness, pride, control (AGAIN)…and I’ve set those things at the Lord’s feet. Aaaahhhh, what a sigh of relief. Turns out I CAN live without those things.
I’m telling you, that if you haven’t taken a moment to reflect on the size of the load you’re carrying around, do it now. I PROMISE that it’ll be worth it to swing it off your shoulder and lay it before the Father. Whatever the load, I KNOW that you can live without it. All that is actually essential to carry is the Spirit of God. Traveling light is where it’s at baby!
