Revealing & Concealing

In order to make this journey--you have to make it without baggage. You can't carry loads of bags with weight on you in order to be free and Jesus gives you an invitation to come unto him. Now you have to come to him--you will not get rest from anybody else. If you go to anybody else you’re going to find more work.  T.D. Jakes

When God created us one of the things he gave us is a need for companionship.  Because we have this need to be in relationship with others sometimes we circumvent God’s best for us. How do we do that? 

We don’t take care of our emotional baggage before we start a relationship with someone.  There used to be a commercial by American Tourister where this huge gorilla was in a cage and they threw a piece of American Tourister luggage in the cage with the gorilla.  The gorilla proceeded to throw the luggage, jump up and down on it and basically beat on it.  The premise behind the commercial was that the luggage was indestructible.  Sometimes our lives are just like that luggage.  We think we can hide the emotional baggage and only reveal bits and pieces of ourselves.  We only reveal what we want the other person to see, and conceal what is reality.

So, imagine you are going through life dragging your American Tourister luggage along behind you and you meet someone you are attracted to.  What will often occur is we keep our baggage locked down tight and only reveal bits and pieces and the bits and pieces we do reveal are the best of who we are inside, not the worst. Then we are surprised when we are deep into the relationship and it falls apart. 

I have never been one to pack light so what normally happens is I keep adding outfits or shoes or socks to the baggage, in other words, more emotional junk.  Instead of dealing with my emotional baggage, I keep adding to it.  When I try to bring another person into relationship with me that person brings their own baggage.  So now we have two people trying to be in relationship dragging all their baggage. 

Several years ago my husband and I went on a trip to Playa del Carmen Mexico.  When we returned to Dallas we were waiting at the baggage claim when all the bags started coming out onto the turntable.  As we watched a piece of luggage came up the ramp and it had literally exploded.  There were clothes hanging out all sides, some were even scattered along the conveyor belt.  That is what happens when we conceal our emotional baggage.  If we marry the person we are attracted to the baggage we bring with us can explode all over the other person.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, we all have emotional baggage.  We live in an imperfect world and we are going to be exposed to emotional warfare throughout our lives.  I want to deal with my emotional baggage in a Godly way.  I must first understand that I have the baggage and then, through You, learn to empty my suitcase of the harmful stuff that has the potential to ruin my relationships with others.  Thank you for giving me the tools to deal with my baggage. 

Scripture:   Walk in Light

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”  Ephesians 5:8-14