Reflections on the Beach

Week Fourteen

"Packing Light"

Focus Text: Hebrews 12

       So, you’re going on a vacation. Typically, there is a lot of planning that goes into a vacation....and a lot of packing (dun, dun, dun, dramatic effect). Packing. That single word has caused small wars in families. Tense road trips are usually birthed from whose ready and where to put all the stuff. There are two types of people in this world. One group of people pack days before the trip and the other group pack the morning of the trip. Those two very opposite types of people usually marry each other. In our home, I’m typically the early packer. My bag is usually ready about a week before the trip and sitting by the bedroom door, but my wife is the master packer of items in the van. She looks at those odd-shaped items and creates some sort of geometric puzzle that only makes sense to her. Somehow, she can fit a trapezoid-shaped item into a square hole! If you are a family of multiples you know how hard packing back be.  You are packing up your house, especially when the kids are young. You have high chairs, walkers, bumbo seats, bathtubs, and the list could go on and on. It doesn’t take long to figure out if you have overpacked. I’m sure that each of us has overpacked at some point and time in our life. We get one of those hotel luggage carts. Other people stare in amazement as you continue to load what looks like the leaning tower of Pisa. The luggage sways as you push the cart. Occasionally something falls off; a sock here, a pillow there, a binkie for a baby there, etc.

 

      We need to be mindful of the items that we pack. We should ask “Do I need this?” We need a spiritual packing list too. Oftentimes we carry around unnecessary spiritual baggage. This cumbersome baggage weighs us down, wears us out, and steals our joy. The writer of Hebrews tells us “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hone in on that phrase “lay aside every weight.”  The Greek phrase means to put something off something and it always refers to something that harms our life.   The term never tells us to lay aside beneficial things, only detrimental things. What are some pieces of luggage that the Bible tells us to leave behind?  Things like anger, wrath, hurtful words, impure thoughts, envy, any former work of darkness, and traits of our old person. Read over that list again. What piece are you currently lugging around? What benefit does it bring to you? How is it impeding your walk with Jesus? The closer it clings to us the further we will find ourselves from Jesus.

 

Reflection on the Road:

Unzip your spiritual suitcase. Look over each internal item and ask “Does God want this in my life?” If the answer is no then ask the Lord to help you to lay it aside and give it up. Walk lighter and with less encumbrance. Pack carefully each day.