‘Maybe the reason life is so hard is because we think life should be easy.” Scott Peck
I was thinking recently about a trip my family I took to Hawaii when I was a kid. We were leaving on the last day of school. I was graduating from the third grade. As I was making my way home from school I ended up doing battle with a very large bumblebee. The bee made a couple of fly bys and then moved in for the kill. I remember tilting my head to the left trying to avoid the bee from going into my ear when I felt excruciating pain in my left ear lobe. Yes it happened, a bumblebee stung me on my ear lobe. I ran the rest of the way home screaming in agony as my worst nightmare had come true. My ear lobe swelled to the size of a golf ball. It hurt and I was traumatized as we were supposed to be going on vacation.
What is funny is that the biggest memory I have from that trip was not Hawaii or the bee sting but the family luggage set my parents had purchased for the trip. It was the Samsonite family collection. They were classic mid 1970’s. They were hard shell cases equipped with small carry on hard shell cases as well. They were amazing! The best part was the color. I can only describe the color as a hot pinkish, Pepto-Bismol, sort of wanna be red color. Can you imagine lugging those babies to the airport these days? It was the sort of luggage collection that people trying to get rid of at garage sales today after they clean out their attic.
The reality is we all have “baggage” in our lives that we carry around and want to get rid of. Some people’s baggage is obvious. It is as noticeable as the Pepto-Bismol colored Samsonite collection! They cannot help it. Their baggage follows them wherever they go. Somebody hurt them or some set of unfortunate circumstances set off a chain of “baggage” events that never seems to come to an end.
Yesterday, I was with a few friends at a Starbucks downtown. We ordered our drinks and I also ordered a muffin. There was a homeless man sitting in the Starbucks by himself trying to stay warm. He had a few backpacks and a few possessions with him, but that was it. My heart hurt for him. That is somebody’s son I thought to myself. There sat a lonely man who as a kid probably played little league. As a high school student he probably had dreams of what he wanted to do with his life when he got older. How did he get to be “the guy with the backpacks” who sits in Starbucks, but has no money to buy a coffee? How did he get to be the guy with the baggage that no one cared about? I gave him my muffin and he very politely said “thank you, that is kind of you.”
Recently, a good friend of mine made a comment about another friend of mine after the two of them met. He made the observation that my friend like all of us obviously had “life baggage” but did not seem to have “spiritual baggage.” I had never really thought of it that way that there was a difference between “life baggage” and “spiritual baggage.” Life baggage is the effect that difficult people and circumstances have on us. It is being disappointed with life and it handicaps us emotionally and relationally. However, spiritual baggage is different. Spiritual baggage is a feeling of disappointment with God. The notion that somehow He let you down, or the church let you down.
The healthy thing about life baggage is that it can and should point us to our need for Christ. The more I carry it around the more I realize I need to give it to Jesus. The more it shows up the more I depend upon him to help. The scary thing about spiritual baggage is that it causes people to refuse to turn to their only source of help.
Spiritual baggage seems to come from a false understanding of God. Spiritual baggage questions God and wonders if He loved us, we would never suffer. Spiritual baggage comes from thinking that God has promised something he didn’t. Jesus promised:
“…Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NLT
He also promised:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27 NIV
