Monday, 21 January 2013

• Emotional Baggage: We've All Got It

  I think everyone has emotional baggage.  The really heavy stuff doesn’t start till you hit teenage years and young adult years. After a certain point it is impossible to remain “innocent” and baggage-free.

  I used to think I could hold on to my innocence.  I used to think that I would never go through a break-up.  Break-ups are always messy, even if two people split in the most amicable of ways, because when you invest time in someone like that, it alters your heart.  And your first will always be on your mind and in your heart.

  I used to think I would only be in one relationship and get married to that one person.  I thought I could avoid the emotional baggage and drama that everyone else goes through.  But I wasn’t special.  Nobody is. Nobody can avoid it.  So the best thing to do is to try your best not to cause other people pain, but accept that you’re going to break some hearts, and someone is going to break yours.  Accept it as part of life, part of growing up -- like my first boyfriend told me when he broke up with me.

  As an aside, I thought that I would only be in one relationship, but when my first one came along, I didn’t think about it or pray about it nearly as much as I should have. Knowing what I know now, there was no way that a relationship with that young man would ever be the relationship I wanted.  But I was naïve.  I had blind faith, which wasn’t the good kind for this situation.  Now I’m less naïve.

  So this is my attempt to comfort myself as well as anyone else with the notion that they could have avoided certain things.  No, you couldn’t have.  It’s part of life, and if it hadn’t happened that particular way, it would have happened another way and you would still wind up with heartache and regrets.

  Just know that God is sovereign and He owns our sufferings and everything that happens to us.  He is sovereign and He is also good.  So give your baggage to Jesus.  It may be too heavy for you to carry, but He can carry the whole universe.  Your baggage is effortless for Him, and He wants to take it for you.
  
  Are you carrying around some emotional baggage today?  What regret, memory or past hurt are you holding on to?  How does holding on to emotional baggage hurt your ability to be in healthy relationships?  What are some ways we can begin to give our baggage over to God and be healed?

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