Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal...
One time, while standing at the baggage claim carrousel at the airport, I saw a suitcase coming apart at the seams. Too many things had been crammed inside and the case couldn't hold it all. The owner had even tried to secure it with duct tape, but even the tape couldn't keep everything inside. So we all watched as someone's clothes slowly spilled out while the poor suitcase glided along the carrousel. It was too good an image for the preacher in me to pass up. There, I thought, goes contemporary life -- way too many things crammed inside, trying every way we can to keep it all together.
The amazing thing is that we still live with guilt over the things we've not accomplished. There is always one more phone call, one more appointment, one more goal to achieve. So in spite of the fact that we are already dropping some valuable things, we do the crazy thing of cramming still more in our stressed lives.
There is another way to live. You just have to travel more lightly. According to the Apostle Paul, you have to leave some things behind, and forget about them, in order to make room for the one thing that is of "surpassing value" in life. That one thing, Paul says, is not another achievement but a relationship with Jesus. When you travel through life with this Savior, you'll find that he always prefers to carry the baggage. And he never brings more than we need.
-- Craig Barnes