“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead…” (Philippians 3:13 NLT)
Do you remember Wilson’s Leather Shop? I have an overnight bag from that shop, gifted to me years ago. I’m tell you that bag has traveled to Boston, Providence, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Newark and through states like Connecticut, and New Hampshire. It does not take up much space, but it can be loaded to the point that no additional baggage is needed for a trip to your destination. Lately, I keep it in my closet. I look at it, just laying there, and if it were able to talk, it would probably plead with me, “Please let me go with you today.” “Please carry me around so others will notice me.” “For Pete’s sake,” whoever “Pete” is, “let me out!”
All of us have some baggage. I’m not talking about our skeletons in the closet, even though we have them too. But I’m talking about psychological, emotional, old suppressed and sinful baggage. It pleads with you every day, openly and overtly or silently and subconsciously, “Let me out today and get into your mind, your mannerisms, and your movements from one place to the other today!” “Let me stir up bad memories that you have mastered so far in keeping them from making you feel guilty and unworthy!”
While I might use my gifted piece of baggage, the luggage type referred to above, for good reason, the baggage that I just described, it is always beckoning you to come out, and I am beseeching you not to do it. Okay, I’m counseling you, advising you, or cautioning you! Anything short of commanding you! I’m strongly recommending that you leave your old baggage in the recess of your mind and when you see it trying to squeeze through your thoughts, stimulated by past stimuli. Shut it down immediately! If that sounded like a command, I apologize, but really, I’m okay with that, because it was a Spirit led command! Listen if you are able to leave your old baggage in the closet, if you are successful in doing so, your life will be so much better today and in the future. Enjoy your week! Be blessed!
“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (Isaiah 43:18 NKJV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King