Going on a Journey? Make sure your Luggage is not Baggage!

We learn that there is a difference between luggage and baggage. Luggage is a container that we use to transport clothing and/or necessities for a business trip or a casual vacation. Baggage can be considered as a burden or impediment that weighs us down from past experiences. Something we usually do not want as a sign of our accomplishments in life.

Depending on the length of time we will be away, what we place our most meaningful items in becomes the container of what we may depend upon during our stay. Some people may just leave home without much attention to the items we seem to carry around every day. These necessities may not have any importance if our destination is a place that we might never leave.

When a young person leaves home for a period of time in the military for a designated career in the armed forces, what we may use on a daily basis will be the uniforms the military hands to us. In this case packing a toothbrush and certainly your rosary beads are all you’ll need.

The same scenario that we might consider is the final trip we all must look forward to is where our soul is headed for after our death. However, there still exists the question of which container we bring along for the journey and just what private items we have already decided upon.

You have heard the words that are right to the point regarding our bodies; birth or death. “As man came forth from his mother’s womb, so again shall he depart, naked as he came, having nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. This too is a grievous evil, that goes just as he came. (Eccl 5: 14 - 15).

What is in your baggage that fits this scenario? When the call to move from where you are now to a new location that is eternal, will you be packing your accomplishments without any merit or taking the only attribute that will last through an eternal existence with the Son of God; Jesus Christ? The only picture in our minds memory is the Passion Christ rose from bringing us a total forgiveness for our sins.

If we have ascended to a true relationship in Christ and what he did for us, this becomes the volume of space within our souls that are free of any baggage that life afforded us. Unfortunately, there will be many who will still hold on to the useless collection of desires of pleasure, wealth over others, and the worst of all; pride. The greed of this sin will be the ship that is flowing into hell and there will be no exiting its fast descent that is a one-way trip.

Baggage contains everything we cannot give up; our suitcase is luggage that only has space for Christ and his eternal love for our soul. With that impact on our adherence for his grace the trip shall be a sight of the Light that is God.

Choices of what we must have in life should be one of finding Christ who lives within our soul. It will carry us without any labor on our part.

Ralph B. Hathaway.