Baggage

By definition, baggage is what you bring with you. A deeper meaning reveals that baggage are “things that encumber one’s freedom, progress, development, or adaptability; impediments: intellectual baggage that keeps one from thinking clearly; neurotic conflicts that arise from struggling with too much emotional baggage.” Sound familiar? An asset is a “useful valuable thing, person, or quality.” When I got married over 38 years ago, I was asked if I had any impediments preventing me from entering into marriage. I was confused by that question but quickly recovered by saying no. Over the years of our blessed marriage, I have considered that question more deeply once I understood the question.

I believe we all carry around with us baggage and assets. We can own property or we can be owned by our property. This weekend my wife and I were blessed to get to know again somewhat forgotten cousins. We re-united for a day to remember days gone by as children and hopefully, rekindle new relations, new memories. Gathering around a piece of property you own to share common memories adds value and considered an asset. Making that piece of property a detriment to adaptability is baggage. We should feel free to fly using assets to our advantage.

In Philippians 3:4, Paul says “if anyone else has reason to put their confidence in physical advantage, I have….” Verse 7 says “these things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.” Now, I am not recommending to sell all your property but I am suggesting we should change our attitudes to follow Christ. Norman Vincent Peale, published a booklet called “Thought Conditioners” where he referred to Philippians 3:13,14 and commented that if we are to have mental health and live successfully, we must move away from past failures and mistakes and go forward. He suggests we should learn the art of forgetting by dropping the day into the past when we sleep and look confidently to the future with God when we awake.

In Matthew 21:33-46, Jesus told a parable about a property owner who rented out his vineyard only to find the tenants decided to claim the property for themselves. They defended the  property from the owner’s representatives even by death. The result was destruction for those who believed they had a right to the property. God’s resources are his not ours. We are merely workers in his field so let us use these assets to add value to one another and not make baggage in our lives preventing our purpose according to Him.

T