Excess Baggage

I thought this devotion was very interesting because I have always carried a bag with me through high school, college, and any job I’ve had outside of college. You never know when you need something throughout the workday, and I’ve never been comfortable with leaving personal items in my desk. When I worked in publishing, that bag was filled with CDs, notebooks, and a novel every once in a while. When I started working at Lilly, it was filled with CDs, comic books, and later my Bible. Now that I’m teaching, I’m carrying textbooks and a portfolio along with my bag with CDs, my Nintendo DS, magazines, and piles of coupons and paperwork and personal correspondence that I have to file.

Every once in a while I have to clean out my bag and take out what’s obsolete or unnecessary. There are only two things that can get me to clean out my bag: either there’s no room for anything else or it’s too heavy for me to carry. I think we approach life in that same way. When the schedule gets too full or stressful, we have to stop and say, “Wait, is all this really necessary?”

A full schedule can be sinful, as the story referenced, especially if you’re crowding God out of that schedule or consistently giving Him a small amount of your attention. And, to my mind, a stressed-out life is simply an invitation for sin to enter your life, as you desire to take short-cuts and you develop short-temperedness as a way to deal with the stress.

I know that I need to take account of things right now, because my bag is full (seriously) and God has placed His Word before me to remind me that my bag is full. So, at lunchtime, you’ll find me here at my desk, cleaning out my bag and giving some extra attention to God, His wisdom, and His plans for my life that I’ve cluttered up with all this stuff I’m carrying around with me.