Baggage

baggage&burdens

First, I don't think I have to argue that we - humans - all carry around tons and tons of baggage and burdens. We come from every walk of life - rich or poor, smart or dumb, talented or untalented, cool or awkward, haves or have nots, strong or weak, beautiful or ugly - anything and everything else and yet, despite our great diversity we all carry heaps of baggage and shoulder-breaking burdens.

Whether or not we show them, well, thats another matter. Some of us are honest enough to reveal them with semi-ease and moderate comfort, while others of us are scared what will happen if we do reveal them ... the potential rejection or ridicule ... it would just be too much to bear, again. If you need a reason to believe that we live in a broken, sin-cursed, death-defiled world just consider this fact!!! It's obvious.

The more I know people, the more I am convinced that we all carry burdens, but not just burdens, ones that are far too great for us. The more I read - books, blogs, emails, letters, news report (especially globally concerned reports) - the more I find myself in disbelief of the degree of pain that not only exists in this world, but which thrives in this world! It's frightening, if you let it be. The more life I live, the more I know from my own baggage, burdens, and pain that this is the curse of sin, its very outworking. I can smell that slithering serpent leaving his stench of death everywhere. I can hear the cries of broken hearts as he wreaks havoc the world over.

Yet, it is baggage and burdens that make us real. Without them we would be whop-sided emotionally. Some of you may say, "Boy, that would be nice!" There are times I would agree. But reality is we are made with reflections of the heart of God, and - although infinitely joyful - he is not only joyful. Thats not to say He is sad, but He has more emotions than just "happy." (Sorry thats not word well at all). It is the baggage that we lug around that keeps us grounded in reality, like spikes and sandbags holding a hot-air balloon tightly to the earth. In that sense, they are good for us.

Further, its the baggage and pains of life that make us grow the most. Make us mature the most. Reflect. Look back over your life and you will quickly testify that during the darkest of times, the dimmest of moments, the most difficult trails - these were the hours where you were stretched the most, almost but not quite beyond yourself, your limits. It is in the pain that we learn love, true love. Not the flippant kind, but deep, personal, heart-breaking & heart-binding love. The love of God. The love of God through His Bride too.

The danger of baggage and burdens is that we may seek to bear them ourselves. We are not meant to do that. This life, this world is too bad, too heavy, too much for us to bear alone. We are not lone wolves ... nor should we try to be. No one is getting any points for such attempts. God created us for relationships. First with Him, then with one another. Consider that God gave Adam a helper, Eve. He saw that none of the other created things were sufficient. If we bear up under the weight of burden alone, we loose sight of reality, and begin to be sucked into a world that revolves around only "me." It becomes a me-world. Our sights turn inward, we retreat to self. Its not healthy.

But we are indeed called to bear our burdens, just not alone. Consider James 1:2-4, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." We should expect trails, painful trials. But the above verses make my earlier point. The bad times equal the most growth, and if you are in Christ, its the trials which especially work Christ-likeness into your being! That is good news. As far as relations go among human beings, well it clear, we are meant for relationships. All types of them. Love relationships, friendships, familial relationships and so forth. Consider Paul's admonition in Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." I think this includes sins of others as well. He states in Romans 15:1, "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Going back to being in relationship with God, first. To begin with, He deserves all our affections. Perfection demands, by its inherent nature, all admiration, affection, and love. Not cold admiration, but one that drives a person to action. Not lovey-dubby affection, but one that calls out the highest ambitions in one's soul causing him to pursue that in honor of Perfection (ie- God). And pure love, love that says, "By His grace, I will lay my life down for His name, if He calls me to."

In making our burdens known to others, life flows back where once it fully resided. What I mean is this, when we try to bear up under the weight of our life-baggage alone, we begin to die on the inside. I mean this literally. Bearing alone, we become isolated. In isolation, we find that we are slowly dying on the inside, not all at once but like a slow leak in a dam. Damn. That's right. It sucks. To the contrary, when we reveal our hurts and pains, we are able to suffer together, to live real life with each other, and eventually this leads to laughing. Sometimes this kind of laughter may seem a little twisted to outside on-lookers, but to those suffering together it is coping.

Take for example how my family and I made jokes about my needs for supplement oxygen after our Thanksgiving meal in 2003 before I had received my lung transplant. I said something to the effect, "O I ate so much, I am so full I can hardly breathe ... guess I am gonna go get my oxygen, plop down on the beanbag and sleep it all off." We laughed. Now, it certainly was not because I ate so much that I could not breathe, it was because my lungs were not working! But we still laughed at my statement. We were coping with a reality that was hard to bear up under. God is gracious. I received donor lungs on Christmas Day 2003. I am supremely healthy today. Nearly 7 years later.

Bearing with each other in the midst of burdens, and helping one another sort through the baggage of life also keeps us fresh, young, playful. If I am going through something, I become much more serious about life. If I remain that way, I remain too serious, forgetting - in some way - how to have fun, goof off, etc. Now, if my brother, who is aware of my struggle comes along side of me, to help me and walk through the fire with me, he can aid in helping me to develop a new perspective, a more light-hearted and hopeful perspective. In the midst of trials and after years and years of baggage we need a shift in perspective, one that puts Christ at the center of everything.

And ultimately, we must look to Christ, taking Proverbs 4:25 to heart, "Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you ... [on Christ]!"

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