Overweight Suitcases

I don’t travel much, but I travel enough to know that checking luggage is a bad thing. To paraphrase Darrell Royal, there are three things that happen when you check luggage, and two of them are bad. I’ve gone on a week-long trip many times with only a single carry-on suitcase (and my laptop), and I would do it every time. If I traveled alone.

But, of course, I don’t always travel alone. I’m blessed to have a lovely wife to accompany me on vacations, the occasional business trip, mission trips, etc. When we travel together, checking luggage is a necessity. She has one carry-on just for her make-up (which she doesn’t need because she’s beautiful without it), and somehow one day of clothes takes up three times as much space in her suitcase as it does in mine. When we travel together, we have a lot of suitcases.

So it is with many of us — some of us only have a single suitcase, some of us have several, some of us carry around our own porter. Interestingly, it’s not called “suitcase handling” at the airport, it’s called “baggage-handling”. And that leads us to the spiritual side of this conversation.

Just as we all physically travel with different amounts of suitcases, so we all spiritually travel with different amounts of baggage. Some of us don’t have much, some of us have too much, and some of us can’t seem to move at all because our accumulated baggage is so heavy.

For those of you in the last group, the Bible has good news (yes, it actually talks about baggage).

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Jesus loves people who have too much baggage. He not only loves them, He invites them to a party. A “get rid of the baggage” party. Because He goes on to say

My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:30

If you’re not yet a believer in Jesus, He has great news — you no longer have to carry that baggage around. He’ll take care of it for you — you just have to bring it to Him. If you are a believer in Jesus, He has some possibly surprising news — that baggage you’re carrying isn’t His. His burden is light.

Have an unpacking party today. Throw away some suitcases. You won’t be needing them any more.

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