Traveling light

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years.– Deuteronomy 8:2

Smart traveles know that you can’t take it all with you. You usually can spot the first-time traveler – the person who has the large bulging suitcase held together with a piece of rope or gray tape. This traveler is also apt to get a shock when he or she finds out the cost of overweight luggage.

If you ar going to travel, travel light. Traveling light is important in how you live.

Lots of people carry a tremendous load of baggage. Long ago the psalmist wrote, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustainyou” (Psalm 55:22). That is something that you must do. The Hebrew word that we translate “cares” includes a host of ideas and thoughts – burdens, worries, concerns over health, wealth, and your future.

“What’s in your box?” I am occasionally asked when I check in at an airport. Likewise, what’s in your baggage?

The excess, unnecessary baggage that people carry may be memories that sting, resentment or anger aginst someone who has hurt you, or a deep-seated apprehension that something mayhappen to you because what you fear took down your mother or father.

My friend, John Coloumbe, occasionally takes tour groups to Israel. Before they board a little boat on Galilee, John tells the members of his group, “Find a stone that is equal to the burden you are carrying right now and bring it on bard with you.”

On the lake of Galilee, they stop the engine of the little craft, and John tells them, “Look, Peter, who fished here, said we are to cast our burdens on the Lord.”

In the stillness of the moment, he asks the group to drop their rocks into the water, symbolically turning them over to the Lord. Get rid of your excess baggage and take refuge in the Lord.

Used with permission from Guidelines Philippines, Inc. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, please write to Box 4000, 1280 Makati City, Philippines or e-mail address [email protected]. You may also visit our website at www.guidelines.org.