Letting Go - Empty out the Luggage
- Steven DiIoia
- Jul 20, 2008
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I. Introduction
Have you ever had a really bad vacation or trip somewhere? Just one where it is the worst, and when you have a bad one can just seem to impact your life in a terrible way. The trip or vacation was suppose to relax you, revitalize you, to be your escape from reality, from life. Instead you return from it more frustrated than when you left.
I went on one trip with a group of people and we shared a cabin on a lake. And it may surprise some of you considering I love nature and am a country boy … I hated the trip. I know a lot of you out there love to camp and rough it. The whole time I was thinking and why did I ever agrfee to go on this trip? The whole time it was hot and humid … and the fact that Laura and I were stuck in a room that was just a little bigger than the bed. To this day I say it was a closet converted into bedroom … not good. It had one window … window is a generous term, it was more like a hole cut into the wall with glass … and it did not function very well since there was not air circulation. Laura hurt herself hiking to the lake the first day. And we had to cook our food … I do that all the time so why do I want to do that on vacation? It was just one of those trips where one thing leads to another, the kind that Laura I look at each other on the way home and say “We shall never speak of this again”.
II. Too much luggage
Or have you ever over packed for a trip and in the middle of the trip you have just had it with carrying everything? What were we thinking … six pieces of luggage, big luggage? Six pieces of luggage … it was a wrestling match to go anywhere. About half way through the trip all I really wanted to do is throw every piece of baggage out.
That is what I should have done … thrown the extra baggage out so we could move from the next place to the next making the trip so much easier. God says that we should do the same thing in life … too much luggage, too much extra baggage that we may carry in our lives hinders us to move forward
Hebrews 12 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” NIV
The Message states it “It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus”
“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down.” Runners in a race strip down and carry nothing in order to run a race, no water, no extra clothes … that is why they have the water stations along the way … they don’t want to be weighted down as they run so they can make it to the finish line
You may be thinking … you don’t know the life I have, what I have done, what has been done to me and you are right, I probably don’t but I do know that what our creator says … If you want to run the race, and finish, if you want to reach the goal God has laid before you then you must throw off everything that hinders … everything that takes your eye off of Jesus Christ.
IV. Philippians 3
What is interesting is that most people when they hear this or read it in the bible think it is only talking about sin … sin that you cannot stop, sins from the past, … or a deep hurt that you cannot forgive. This is only part of the meaning in Hebrews it reads throw off everything that hinders and the sin separating the two implying that there are other things along with sin that need to be discarded. Obviously sin can hinder a person to move forward and a deep hurt or wound that someone has left on your life can cause someone to carry some baggage not allow them to go forward. But in Philippians, when Paul writes “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” the majority of the verses before Paul wasn’t talking about his suffering he is listing his past accomplishments.
It is as though we are looking at all his awards and trophies of the past. It as if Paul has one of those friends that had their one shining moment in high school and never let it go, so they continue to live in that moment and never moved on to greater possibilities, … a greater future and Paul realizing this says he is forgetting the past, all of it, the sins, the hurts, the sufferings, the triumphs … and looking forward, pressing on toward the goal that God has for all of us.
You see focusing on the past no matter what your past is; will not let you move into the future, will not let you walk the path that God has laid before you.
So here is my luggage … my baggage from two trips … one from a good trip to the Adirondacks and one bad trip to the cabin by the lake. One filled with unpleasant memories and one filled with happy, joyful memories. See here is sleeping stuff a blanket; bring your own bedding, no air conditioning, no sleep the other nothing … bedding included, with air conditioning, hotel. Food a pan … buy food, make food, clean up after eating, the other Menu … go out and be served, have someone make the food, and clean up after eating. Shoes, boots … it feels like boot camp, not a real escape, not a stress reliever the other sneakers … relaxing and having fun. Reminders or souvenirs … no souvenirs the other a hat from the big nature center we visited and a t-shirt.
Are you stuck in your past whether it is good or bad? Are you stuck on a past hurt, past sinful life, or even past triumphs?
Remove the excess baggage from your life; truly confess your sins to God, ask for forgiveness, and receive it … God has already given forgiveness; He just wants you to accept it.
Forgive those that need to be forgiven, and let it go. Enjoy the triumphs of the past, but press on to the successes of tomorrow
Through all of this, because it may not be easy, ask God for help and he will give it because He wants you to move forward in your life. Learn from your past; do not live in your past.
VII. Two Empty Suitcases
I have two empty suitcases … all the memories taken out of them. They are equal now. Neither one hindered by the past trip. Both having the same potential, they have no baggage from the past trips. They now only have the potential to move forward, to the next trip, the next journey.
I pray you may start to empty the luggage in your heart, that you may empty it out of the past and throw off the extra baggage so you may become unhindered, and with joy, and realize your potential, moving forward to the next journey, running towards the goal that God has laid before you.