Excuse Me..Are Those Your Bags?

Life isn't fair. And it doesn't care whether you think it is or not. We all have our thoughts, opinions, hurts, aches, and views on everything. And really..nobody cares about those either. They care about theirs.Their hurts..their aches..and if you don't understand them? Well...

I used to think I had something to say..a voice. Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn't really matter in the end. Voices get caught up in other voices, other aches, other views and tangled with them in a mass of whoever gets to spin and say why they are not their views. In the bigger picture? It just becomes noise..

Everybody has baggage. The baggage you carry is uniquely yours. My baggage is just that..Mine. My trying to convince you of my baggage always gets mixed up in with your baggage. Always. So, that leads to a choice. Me forcing my baggage on you..or simply just helping you carry Your baggage.

A couple of years ago..God showed me a glimpse of something. Himself. Everyday He is showing me a little more of Himself. The more He shows, the more it is challenging everything I ever thought of Him. It's like I have this big bucket full of what I thought of God..and Jesus grabbed it and dumped it all over the floor. As I put that information back into the bucket, I am examining every piece of Him in a different way. Some? I am simply throwing aside. This is exciting, painful, and frustrating.
As I try to explain this process to others, I am met with acceptance, resistance, judgement, conditionality, encouragement and a little abuse...Baggage.

I now have a choice. I can push your baggage away, and insist on you looking at my baggage. Or..I can simply accept my baggage as mine..and help you carry yours. You may not want me to carry it. You may yank it away and tell me that I don't have baggage like you, therefore "stay away from my baggage." You may then get angry at me for not accepting and carrying the very baggage that you won't let me carry.

But..here's the thing: As God reveals Himself more to me..My insistence on you accepting my baggage..is simply my refusal to let go of my life..Let go of me..baggage. Jesus says something radically different than that. For a resurrection to occur..there has to be a death. My absolute refusal to die shows in my self justifying behavior towards others. It manifests itself, in my insistence of others understanding the weight of my baggage. It occurs when I absolutely refuse to carry my neighbor's baggage while at the same time discarding my own baggage. You see..I HATE my baggage. There is A LOT of it. And it's heavy. I am finally at a point where it is getting less and lighter..and then you come around with YOUR baggage...and I just cannot bear anymore baggage.

But..that's really not your problem. It's mine. My refusal to accept and help you carry your baggage, is really just me refusing to die. Die to self. Die to my idea of my worth to you..to God. I fight, kick, scratch, and claw my way to save the very thing Jesus came to set me free of..ME. My insistence on hanging on to any scrap of self-worth,(baggage), is the very thing that is preventing me from "loving others as myself..' I refuse to die. I just cannot accept that this Carpenter loves me so much He would die for me..that he calls me," no longer slave..but friend.." My metaphorical "turn of my back", is a complete denial of God's grace and purpose for me on the Cross on my behalf. It's a refusal to die.

But..I have good news. As, God peels away years of moralism and incorrect views of who He is and what He said..He is revealing Himself to me..and a piece of baggage falls..the load gets lighter.. And your baggage does not seem so disgusting and threatening to me anymore. As He takes a piece of baggage from me..it allows me to take one from you.

The Gospel allows me to accept you..love you AND your baggage, because God loves me and accepts me with mine through His Son Jesus Christ. As I see my faults, failures and sin more clearly through the lens of Jesus, I am able to simply dwell with you in grace. Grace that you may not deserve, or even want. I can do this knowing that Jesus pours out His grace on me every day..and I never deserve it..and sometimes don't want it either. Jesus has a way of doing that..transforming, molding..loving.

 So, "Excuse me..Are those your bags?" "Need a hand?"  "There's room at the table..Come..let me grab that for you.."