Baggage! Baggage comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Typically, baggage is for function. It is used to transport things we need. Although we can pack our bags full of things we need, we can also pack things we just think we need.

Personal baggage is relatively the same, only, it’s invisible to the naked eye. We fill our bags full with all the happenings of life: successes, failures, hopes, dreams and of course the things that people have said or done to us that have caused deep cuts in our soul. We carry all these things around and wear them as if they were our own.

This is the personal baggage we are talking about today. The kind that weighs heavy on our shoulders. That makes us walk with a limp. Hinders us from fully engaging in life.

Our baggage comes from so many different places. We’ve been hurt, humiliated, disappointed, betrayed and more. We toss it all in! The injustice of the transgressions we’ve endured over a lifetime can alter our ability to fully engage in life.

I need to stop for a minute and say how sorry I am for all the hurt you have endured. For the tears you’ve cried into your pillow at night. You may have never shared your deepest pain to another person because it is just too much. I get it. I’ve been there. Which is why I’m encouraging you to open up the vault today and allow God to work in you to heal those deep wounds. Trust me, you don’t have to carry them around anymore.

Take another look at the picture above. It speaks a thousand words, doesn’t it? Even if I didn’t write a single one, I bet God is prompting you about something you carry around on a daily basis.

What issue do you struggle with the most? Fear…Depression…Grief… Anxiety…Judgement…Insecurity…Victimization…Unforgiveness? The list is endless, but try and narrow in on one major emotional player that trips you up time and time again.

For many of us, if we are honest with ourselves, tend to feel like we’ve earned the right to carry our hurts and what they represent. We ‘claim’ them as our own. They have become part of us. Maybe we continue to carry them because we think they keep us safe from trusting again or loving again. In part, that may be true. But that’s not the way God designed us to function.

On a personal level, how do you handle the daggers of life? The ones that cut deep? Do you give them to God and ask him to heal you? Or, do you toss them into your invisible baggage with the other infractions and allow the poison to fester?

If you really took the time to think about it, how do they affect your relationships? Are you free to love? To trust? To forgive? I bet for most of us, the answer is a big-fat no!

So why do we carry around the hurts and injustices of another? Why do we claim them as our own?

Probably because we don’t want to get hurt again. Or we were so crushed that we can’t seem to heal. And this is where our God comes in.

God not only see’s the pain and the injustice, but he cares deeply for you—the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. He is a God who see’s you. He knows your heart. And yes, he knows the baggage you carry around full of the hurts that you haven’t let him heal along the way.

Let me say, as one who has carried my fair share of baggage, I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to unpack it and give it over to God. It’s messy and it takes a lot of emotional energy.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of packing up your pain and carrying it around in your heart, your mind, and your soul—make no mistake, it will continue to affect you until you do something about it. God is calling you out, inviting you to draw close to him, share it with him, unpack it and offer it to him to heal.

Will you? It’s a tough ask, I know. But maybe it’s time. Time to let God carry the burden and in turn set you free to laugh, and love, and forgive.

Reflect and Respond:

This week, let’s decide to tackle one hurt that has made it’s way into our “baggage claim”. Pray about it and work on unpacking all the hurts and residual pain that it continues to cause in your life. This is the time God wants to heal you. Draw close to him and rest in his healing embrace.

Remember, you are not alone.