Lightening Your Load

Yesterday night as I was packing to go on vacation this week, I thought for a moment about how I am a fairly light packer. There are two types of people in the world- those who pack light and those who overpack. Neither method is necessarily better than the other. In our lives, we can easily tend to overpack, carrying extra stuff that we don’t need to carry. And when it comes to how we pack our luggage, thankfully, whichever camp we find ourselves in, overpacker or under packer, is not an indication of our ability to trust Jesus and let go of the things we don’t need to carry.

Overpacking leads us to have a heavier load to carry because we have more than we need. And in the spiritual life, it is easy to find ourselves weighed down with a heavy load to carry. We often try to either carry things on our own or carry things that we need to hand over, to let go of. Maybe we allow the lies of the world and Satan to fill our hearts and minds. Maybe we let sin build up and weigh us down, instead of seeking out confession right away. Maybe we try to carry our crosses on our own, not seeking help from others and from Jesus.

All of these things we carry on our own or unnecessarily with us on the journey are the things that hinder us from a stronger relationship with God. They drag us down, slowing our progress in our spiritual lives, and ultimately weaken our trust in God. But he wants us to hand everything to Him and put our complete trust in Him, knowing that He walks with us every step of the way, helping us carry only what we need and handing Him the rest.

Is anything weighing you down lately? Take time to reflect on what you need to release completely or what you need to give to Jesus. May you open up your suitcase and remove those things you don’t need, lightening your load and letting Jesus take it from you.