Packing and Re Packing

Between camps, weekends at my folks and our week long camping trip, I feel like my summer could be
defined by packing and then re packing.

It's so tiresome.
And messy.
And time consuming.


Although, I grew up in 'the city', my childhood has a very small town quality to it because of the church and Christian school I went to.
We all grew up together, our parents all knew each other.
You couldn't get away with a thing, because someone would see you and you'd better believe they would tell your folks.
We are all grown up now, and most of us have left that particular church,
but now with the fun of Facebook, we are all able to stay in touch.

Last week, because of a tragedy, we were all in close contact once again.
Which in so many ways is a good thing.

A beautiful thing.

But, for many of us associated with the type of upbringing we had, there is some serious baggage associated with it as well.

And, bags I'd 'unpacked' years ago, were suddenly full again.

When bags are full-they are heavy.

There comes a point in all of our lives(-because no matter where/how we grew up, we've got some baggage-)we got to unpack the bags.

It's hard to function in life carrying around all the 'stuff' we pack around.

And I don't know about you, but I want to do more than merely function. . .

I want to thrive.

I want to serve.

I want to live fully present in the here and now.


And packing around all the 'bags' makes that nearly impossible.

And all those people who filled our bags with garbage,  are not affected in the lest by our still carrying them around.
The only people it affects is us and the ones we love and the ones we are trying to serve.

Many of you reading this have been dragging around your bags for years, and things that happened to you in childhood are determining your choices today.

Abuse
Addiction
Divorce
Abandonment
Pride
Guilt
Shame

And countless other things that were filled in our bags before we had control over what went in to them. . .

But, here is the thing, we might not have been responsible for packing our bags, but we are responsible for unpacking them.

It's time.

Haven't we been carrying them around long enough?
Aren't they heavy?

Let's commit together to unpacking them once and for all.


Praying for you today,