Baggage and luggage on your spiritual journey
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Russ Waldrop / News Virginian
Published: October 26, 2007
We also saw this principle portrayed in the movie, "Love Story," and its sequel, "Oliver's Story." Oliver was devastated when his first wife died and, when he remarried, it was before he had adequately grieved his way though her death. Memories and unresolved emotions rose up as "ghosts" and threatened to destroy his new marriage. His "emotional baggage" was too heavy for them to manage, even together.
The Bible talks about leaving the past in the past. The Apostle Paul said, "I have not reached perfection, but I do practice one principle: forgetting about what remains in the past and stretching toward the future, I press on toward a better goal which is the biggest prize of all: the high calling of God in Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:13-14).
This can be difficult for anyone with significant losses in their past and more losses happening in the present. What can "grease the wheels" of Paul's principle so that we can, indeed, say goodbye to the past even as we embrace the future-
Another principle of counseling is similar to that of the baggage we carry from the past. We can call it "luggage." Just like when we travel by airplane, there are necessities and principles for our spiritual journeys. In fact, Jesus instructed his disciples on what to take with them when they traveled throughout the country preaching the gospel. Depending on where they were going and why, they weren't always the same things.
Consider the luggage, and other instructions, they were to have for one such trip:
"Calling the Twelve together, Jesus sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: Take nothing but a staff; no bread or bag and no money in your belts. Wear sandals but just one tunic, not two. When you enter one house, stay there until you leave town; and, if one place will not welcome you or hear you out, shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them" (Mk. 6:7-11).
Those travel items and instructions seem primitive for us today. Few would try to get on board a plane with a six- to seven-foot shepherd's staff, but the point is that some things are necessary to take with us as we follow Jesus today and other things are left behind.
One crucial spiritual travel item is the ability to give and receive forgiveness. Geographical moves, divorces and remarriages, even losses of pets and property, involve personal relationships, however flawed. Accepting personal responsibility and asking the other parties to do so can help "bury" the past, especially if we are the person we need to forgive; as we often are.
What travel items have you packed in your spiritual luggage. What needs to be left behind-
(Part two next week.)
The Rev. Dr. Russell G. Waldrop, D. Min., LPC, is a pastoral counselor and is chaplain of Western State Hospital. Contact him at 540-943-9918 or .
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