Life's Baggage

This last Summer, while traveling to Germany, Carol and I had a lot of baggage to keep track of. Getting through customs (both coming and going) was real brutal. Get the luggage, drag it down to the customs/passport gates and drag it out to waiting transportation. You can't travel without baggage, and I've come to see the ordeal at the airport as just part of the price to see loved ones. So, I will keep doing it. 

There is another connotation to baggage. In life we use that term for people who have had difficult events in their past, and are unable to overcome it. There is no profit in minimizing horrible treatment in the past, especially by just saying "get over it". Those past treatments do have an effect on the present and if this isn't dealt with in an honest way, then people get caught in bondage to the past.

I've thought about this a lot. I've talked with people that are dealing with traumatic events in their past. I've counseled people to let those things be "teachers" and "seeds" for growth. I've counseled that the past need not be the dominate factor in the present (or the future for that matter). If the individual is a believer, the Jesus is Lord of the past, present and future. Those traumatic events are not the lord, nor are they the ways one should be identified. Our identity is in Jesus as a child of God. 

I've heard people tell me that they were abused, a drunk, a drug addict, a prostitute, neglected, or experienced some other bad situation of life. If those things are in the past, and you are in Christ, you are a new creation. There is no forgetting what one was cleansed from, but the fact is, those in Christ have been cleansed. Notice what the Apostle Paul says: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Again Paul reminds us; "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). What could it mean that the old things have passed away? Does it mean we have somehow, magically, forgotten them? No that can't be. There is however the possibility that we demoted those things in the past so that they don't dominate us any longer. 

I thought about these things and wondered if I asked a reverse question would that help point these things out? How does one go about hanging on to the baggage of the past? What do we need to do to make sure that these past experiences continue to direct our lives in the present? What is it that we must conclude that the past is what gives us an identity? 

Here are a few answers I have come up with (with the help of others). We must constantly re-live those moments. We must cover ourselves in self-pity, and be unwilling to grow beyond the experience. We must make this the most significant thing that has ever happened and think that nothing will ever change it. Perhaps you can share what you think would be a good way to hold on to baggage. 

I received an email this past week from Nisan McLeod. She gave me permission to share this with you. 

"I am reminded to live every day to the fullest.  This weekend Cynthia, Keith and I visited Yosemite as we do each year.  I went by the spot where my old dorm room had stood prior to the flood in 1997, picked up a wooden shard and noticed that there were river rocks at what remained of the steps to the building.  The thought came to my mind of how powerful the water was to move these things and that we should more like the water that flows around the obstacles of life instead of trying to stop the tide.  I found myself thinking that I wished I had been more aware of the good times I was having there when both of my parents were alive.  The truth was that I was there once again with loved ones having the time of my life and decided to embrace the moment with joy.  Times change, people leave us, and yet Christ remains the unmovable constant in our lives.  I hope when the time comes I will be caught praising his name! I hope today finds you enjoying life" 

It actually is looking at things from a different perspective. We should take up the perspective of Yahweh's word, an bring Him glory with all we do.

Chuck Jones

openbiblepomona@gmail.com