7 minute read
By Bethany Rees

The Baggage Claim

Have you ever flown and had to check your bags? 

“People watching” at an airport is a fascinating experience. Tons of people coming and going to and fro. Carrying heavy baggage everywhere they go. 

First, depending on the airline carrier there are different fees associated with your baggage and the heavier it is the more you have to pay. 

You tag it and with your information so if it gets lost, the airline knows to return it to you. You watch it go off to who knows where and head to catch your plane. 

Upon arriving at your new destination you follow all the airport signs to find the sacred area called the baggage claim. Then you stand around waiting for the light and beep to signal that all the baggage is on its way. You stare intently at each piece waiting on your specific baggage. You notice other people’s baggage and think to yourself “man, they need a new bag,” or “wow, I wish I had that piece. It really stands out and is easier to spot.” 

Round and round all the baggage goes waiting for its owner to claim it. Finally you spot what you think is yours. You work your way through the crowd to verify the tag, and drag the big heavy baggage off the conveyor belt and back into your life.

Laying Our Baggage, Hurt, & Trauma Down

The more I reflect on my own life and get to know other people’s stories, the more I’m noticing how much baggage everyone is carrying around. Most of that baggage is from our past, yet we end up carrying it to each new destination in our lives. We have in fact become used to the weight of it. 

Instead of claiming our baggage at each destination, how about we release it.

In thinking about our past hurt or trauma, we as a society have been conditioned to think, feel, and react as though carrying around this heavy baggage is normal. 

While it is true that hurt and/or trauma does happen to everyone, it is not true that we must become slaves to it. Carrying it around everywhere we go. Becoming so familiar with our hurt/trauma that it becomes part of our identity that we can’t escape.  

You see, bad things happen…to everyone. EVERYONE! The devil tries to use shame and his lies to keep us chained to our hurt and trauma so we continue carrying it around. BUT GOD! God is a chain breaker and a way maker and it is through His son Jesus that we are saved from that heavy baggage. 

Our relationship with Him is so much more than what many of us think it is. A relationship with Christ doesn’t slap on us a “how to be good” to do list where we are condemned to hell the second we get out of line. Our God is NOT a performance based God (unfortunately, many of us are raised this way). 

He is a loving and gracious God that sees the deepest darkest parts of us and loves us anyway. He forgives. He heals. He provides comfort and peace in the most horrific of circumstances. 

So as you reflect on your baggage, your hurt, your trauma, and then remember… we don’t have to earn love from God…He gives it freely. We don’t have to earn forgiveness from God…He gives it freely. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30:

Go to the cross with your hurt and lay it all down. Allow yourself to speak out about what baggage you are carrying around. Speaking out loud your thoughts and feelings to God does a great deal in releasing them from the innermost parts of your mind.  

Forgiveness

After speaking out, seek forgiveness. We usually can’t get past our past because we struggle with forgiveness of ourselves and others. 

Forgiveness of others and ourselves within our baggage, hurt, and trauma is what cuts the chains to release us to freedom. Why?  

Because as the saying goes, harboring UNforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.  

I read in my Freedom devotional (from the Highlands small group curriculum) that we have the wrong idea of what forgiveness is. 

Forgiveness in action IS…

• receiving God’s forgiveness by faith.
• defeating the lies of the enemy with God’s truth. 
• praying for people who have offended you.
• blessing people who have offended you. 
• doing good to the people who have offended you. 

God Will Use ALL THINGS For Good

There is true FREEDOM in Christ! And God will use ALL THINGS for Good. 

Your baggage, your story, can and will be used for testimony and empathy to support others through it. 

For example, (and I’m breathing a very big deep breath as I type this)...I was sexually abused as a child by an in-law married into the family.  It wrecked my immediate and extended family and had ripple effects beyond anything you could imagine for so many people. 

BUT GOD…

Every person affected by the trauma has since leaned into God to seek healing.

We do NOT have to carry our baggage, but are called to lay it down at the cross. Upon finding freedom, God will use your hurt for good. And while evil exists in the world, staying trapped in trauma doesn’t have to. 

I can honestly say I am free from its trauma and my family is either there or almost there too.  I have an amazing family and am very close with all of them. I harbor no ill will and God has used my and my family’s story over and over again in helping others walk through similar trauma. 

That is why I feel so free to share it now... If you have ever experienced abuse, you are NOT alone in your hurt and you do NOT have to hide in shame. It is NOT your fault, and you CAN BE FREE from the weight of its baggage. It bears repeating, there is evil in this world, BUT GOD...

God can and will use: 

• Your struggle with anxiety
• Your struggle with mental health
• Your experience of being judged or ostracized from society 
• Your experience of parenting a strong willed child
• Your pain of a broken marriage
• Your trauma with physical, mental, or sexual abuse
• Insert your baggage here… 

We can be free from our baggage. 

A New Creation

To break the psychological conditioning we have in carrying our baggage or reinforcing our hardened walls for protection…through Christ, we can be transformed with the freedom of forgiveness and the renewing of our mind.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

If you are going through or have gone through something that is weighing you down, please reach out to God and a trusted loved one or friend. 

Go to the cross and let go of all the heavy baggage you have been carrying around. You no longer have to carry that to your next destination, relationship, circumstance, etc. 

Know Better. Do Better. Live Better. Lay Down Your Baggage at the Cross.

Rocks before Sand!

Scripture: 

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

~Matthew 11:28-30

Theme Song: 

Matthew West - Forgiveness (with Lyrics)

References Used:

• Highlands Small Groups. Freedom Small Group Workbook. 
• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.