How Much Baggage is Too Much Baggage?

Hebrews 12:1-2
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

If you have a toddler, or have met one, you know that any simple task becomes instantly challenging with a little one in tow. So you might think my husband and I were brave (or crazy) for taking a trip last year to Louisiana with our two toddlers to visit family.

If only you could have seen us at the airport! Our baggage cart was piled higher than my husband could see over, so it took both of us to push and guide it. And our three year-old pushed our one year-old in the stroller.

I am one who likes (needs) to be prepared for any what if scenario that could potentially happen on the trip.

What if the kids dirty all of their clothes on the first day, the weather suddenly change while we're there, and the stroller and carrier aren't enough to transport the kids? Better pack twice as much stuff as we need, just to be safe.

It looked like we were moving to Louisiana, yet we were only visiting for a week. Perhaps we had too much baggage - certainly more than we needed!


The root of my fear when packing is often that if there were a need without a solution, it would reflect back on my inadequacy as a mom to care for my children.

Similarly to the excessive baggage I tote while travelling, I far too often shoulder needless baggage in my race of life.

Lately I have been shouldering the baggage of guilt. I'm not talking about the true guilt that comes from God which leads to repentance; I'm talking about the burdening false guilt, based on lies, that won't go away despite our best methods of alleviating it.

It's the kind of false guilt that continuously whispers, You're letting everyone down; You should be doing more; You constantly drop the ball; You're doing it wrong; Someone could do it better. 

Are any of those lies familiar to you?
They have been my constant companions for so long that I was blind to their presence.

And yet their presence in my life means that the race I am running and the weight I am carrying is harder and heavier than God intended.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

If our baggage is condemning, it needs to go.

How can we run our race, the race God has for each of us, when we are being crushed by our own baggage? Maybe the weight we're carrying is fear of the unknown, or worry about the details, or insecurity about our competency, or distrust that God will take care of us and our loved ones.

Often when I have said YES to God, but my baggage is too heavy, I become overwhelmed, implode, and question if I really heard God correctly. My belief and trust in God wavers as I think, I must be doing it wrong or I must have misunderstood what God was saying to me. 

But what if I didn't hear God wrong, He simply didn't intend for me to carry so much weight?

What's the alternative?

"Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles".

When we hold firm to the truth of what God has asked us to do, and throw off everything that is not from Him, we can run our race the way He intended it to be run.

There is a cost to following Jesus. 

The reality is that if we say YES to what God is asking us to do, we will have to say NO to something else.

I can't be in one place and another at the same time. I can't love someone fully and hold onto bitterness in my heart. I can't trust God and maintain my own control simultaneously.

In order to say YES to God, we need to throw off something that can't come along with us.

Perhaps God has asked you to do something, or not do something, and the excessive baggage you carry is making your task nearly impossible and completely miserable.

What has God asked you to do?

What baggage do you need to throw off so you can follow through and run your race the way He intended?

When Jesus sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, He told them not to take any supplies with them on their journey, nor to worry about what they would say. God would work out the details.

The disciples didn't need to worry about the what ifs, they simply needed to trust and follow. It is the same for us.

Even though it is difficult, let us throw off our what ifs, so we can freely run our races.

There is a cost to following Jesus, but the cost of not following Him is far greater.