Baggage

"So then let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne." Hebrews 12:1-2 CEB

Throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus.

Easy enough, right?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been working on this. It is challenging yet refreshing. It's easy for me to deal with obvious, visual clutter. Scoop it into a bag and donate it or throw it away. In fact, I did that just yesterday. The kids were away with my awesome in laws and so I took the opportunity to purge all of the junk that's gathered on top of surfaces. I scooped up huge piles of papers off my desk, the kitchen table, and Lexi's room. Lexi, my almost 5-year-old, is a budding author/illustrator, and she has a hard time getting rid of any of the paper that she marks upon. It makes sense sometimes. Sometimes, she spends a great deal of time writing a story or drawing something beautiful and detailed. Those pieces of art get safely tucked away in my desk. But among the beautiful, there are many many scraps and scribbles and abandoned works. They are stacked in corners of her room, my desk, tucked under furniture, and cluttering her closet. But it's hard for her to say goodbye to any of them. Because at one point, they meant something to her. At one point, she took pen (or marker, pencil, scissors or glue) to paper and had an idea or tried something. Put her heart into it. Sometimes it works out the way she wants it to, and other times, it doesn't. But she still clings to it all.

It is hard for us as adults to acknowledge the extra baggage in our lives sometimes. I have a particularly hard time letting go of relationships and commitments that I've poured part of myself into. Do you ever struggle with that? We cling just as tightly as Lexi does to every scrap, every commitment, every relationship, every item we purchase, everything we've ever poured part of ourselves into. Because it is hard to let go! It is hard to admit that we don't really need something that we spent money or time on, or that something we've committed ourselves to is no longer a valuable use of our time. It is hard to throw off extra baggage when we can't decide if it is baggage or not, when we might need it someday, when casting it off might make people look at us differently.

But friends, if we don't cast it off, it gets heavy. It weighs us down. It takes up our time and our energy. I've learned that I can't do ALL things and do them ALL well. But if I let go of some of the excess, if I prioritize, I can do SOME things, REALLY well. But I need to allow myself some spare time and energy too. Time and energy I need to do what that verse says: fix my eyes on Jesus. We can't fix our eyes on Jesus if we don't take our eyes (and our hearts, and our time and energy) away from the baggage that's pulling us down. We can't see the beauty of something really special if scraps and abandoned works and half-hearted commitments obscure our view.

What baggage have you struggled with? What would you like to let go of so you can fix your eyes on Jesus?