I just returned with my family from our old stomping grounds in OH – we love seeing our family and friends and while ten hours with four kids can be trying we have made this trip enough times in the last year to have settled into quite the little routine.  Here is a quick run down of our typical trip itinerary:

• 7:00PM:  Departure
• 7:30PM:  Fast Food
• 11:00PM: Pit Stop #1 for Gas, a Dewski for Dad, Water for Mom and Funions for the Kids
• 12:00AM: DVD Players off and Mommy and Kids to Sleep (hopefully)
• 2:30AM:  Pit Stop #2 for Gas and $20 worth of Caffeine and Sugar for Dad
• 5:30A:  Arrival, Carry Kids in for HOPEFULLY another Couple of Hours Sleep

This little routine has seemed to be the best option for getting us to our destination safe and sound and no worse for the wear. 

I will also reveal one of our greatest travel secrets right now.  You will notice no bathroom breaks – thats because we have a travel potty – the sides of our van are often pretty disgusting from emptying contents (liquid only) at 70 mph – but I’d rather hit a carwash the day after our arrival than stop every five minutes to deal with nature.

This trip however was a little different, last night we left OH at the customary time but it took us an extra hour with two extra stops – you wanna know why?  Baggage.

While in OH, we decided it was time to tow our boat back to GA, we also piled on a canoe and added a luggage carrier to the top of our van.  As you can imagine, not only did this setup make us look about as “rednecky” as possible it also sucked up the gas and destroyed our schedule.

As I sat down tonight to to reflect on our trip to, in, and from OH I was encouraged by the contrast between our physical vehicle (minivan toting a boat, canoe, and luggage carrier) and our spiritual/emotional ones. 

You see when we left OH back in January it was after being on the receiving end of a pretty good smear campaign by some of our friends at church.  We understood that it really just came down to people being people but when you get in your vehicle after church and find that someone has rammed a pen through a picture of your wife’s face into your vehicles dashboard – well that can create some baggage.

No doubt our first journey from OH to GA found some pretty beat down, heavily baggaged folks looking for a fresh start in life and ministry.  We knew who our God was and we were as close to him as we’d ever been, but it was his people we were pretty disappointed in. 

Well over the past six months we have discovered new ways to find and own our responsibilities for the conflict we experienced and have enjoyed a fresh perspective on what it really means to love and forgive.

Tonight I found myself praising God in that while the trip from home had some extra baggage – our time in OH did not. 

I was there to perform the weddings of two of the young men in whom God has allowed me the privilege to invest.  While at the weddings I had plenty of opportunity to see, interact with, and come across both those who were involved in the politics and those who like me got caught in them.  And while I didn’t ask everybody I saw to slow dance, I can honestly say – no baggage.

I’ve discovered that the Christian life is hard enough to live without holding onto baggage – not your own or stuff other people have tried to give you.  It’s been an incredible journey these last few years, one I could have never anticipated, and yet one that has landed us fat in the middle of our daddy’s lap – with no baggage.

So whatever you are carrying, whether you created it or picked it up from someone elses load – allow yourself to reflect on who God is, who you are in him, and let it go.  Life can be hard, but baggage always makes it harder!

God is Good – even when his children aren’t.  Josh

John 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.