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“Many of us know we’re lugging around too much baggage from the past.”

A thought by James MacDonald (2010-05-03) from his book, 10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever (Kindle Location 2059). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

James goes on, “But we also have a sneaky suspicion that we’re stuck with it.”  It is so easy to feel that way isn’t it?  Maybe that is how you feel.

James then says, “Has anyone ever told you that God didn’t make you with the capacity to carry forward the residue of all the negatives from your past? He doesn’t expect you to store it or ignore it. We call it emotional baggage, but parts of our past are really more like toxic trash or radioactive waste. It’s unstable and explosive. We can’t throw it in a mental hall closet, lock the door, and hope for the best. If we try, the pressure will build until the closet explodes, throwing serious shrapnel on everyone around us.”

And so many people live that way.  Maybe you do.  What kind of emotional baggage are you carrying around with you?

He goes on, “Forgiveness is what God gives to free us and others from the weight of relational failure. Forgiveness disposes of the glowing green sludge of hurts, betrayals, and disappointments. Forgiveness is God’s solution to capacity issues. The older we get, the more we realize we’ve got to become skilled at forgiveness. If we want the kind of life that God promises us, we must find a good way to deal with the wounds that happen to us and the weights that life heaps on us. We need to become the experts at forgiveness in our families, the experts at forgiveness in our churches and on our jobs, and the experts at forgiveness in our neighborhoods with this all-important biblical, necessary, required skill— forgiveness.”

There it is, the solution.  It is called forgiveness.  Not an easy solution but it is the one that God has given to us.  First of all, accept His forgiveness of all the wrong you have done to Him and then He will help you in giving forgiveness to those who have hurt you.


So what emotional baggage are you carrying around today?
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