Luggage

As I sit in the Philadelphia airport headed back to Boston, fresh in my mind is the question ‘do people know that God cares?’ Care about what you may wonder? The plight of humanity is what I had in mind. Like most, when I travel I enjoy doing one of three things – zoning out to my music, reading a book or sleeping. But today was different. As I sat down in my seat, I noticed the person I was sitting next to was crying – not uncontrollably or anything, but certainly enough for me to notice. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for me to hear God say ‘Michael, I want you to let this person know that I care.’

What God wanted me to do got me thinking – ‘do people know that God cares?’ Everyone would answer this question differently, but for me, I would say that a majority of the people I’ve encountered along the way believe that God is aloof to their story. I wonder how this could be, but an answer came to mind as I spent the better part of the day in the airport.

Every where I look, I see people carrying some form of luggage. Some luggage is carried on people’s backs, while others is pulled behind them. No shock to see this at an airport, but the reality is that people carry all sorts of luggage even outside the confines of an airport. People can be found with all sorts of luggage. Guilt. Fear. Shame. Doubts. Worry. Brokenness. The list could go on and on, but I wonder if we pack so much into our suitcases because we do not know that there is One who has invited us to cast the contents of of our suitcases on Him. The one verse that I shared with the individual sitting next to me on the plane is one of my favorite in all of the New Testament.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) This one short, but powerful verse reminded me of a transformational reality – God cares! Life can be lived one of two ways. We can carry our own luggage, and in one lifetime we can accumulate a lot, or we can allow the God who created us, knows us and loves us to carry that luggage for us. Peter gives only one reason for why we should cast our anxieties on God - because He cares! That’s it. Not because we can’t handle it (which if were honest we often can’t), but because He cares. A lot of people don’t know of this invitation. A lot of people don’t know that we were not meant to carry the anxieties, worries, doubts and fears that come with being human. At the end of the day, a lot of people do not know that God invites you and I to cast our ‘anxieties’ upon Him for one reason – because HE CARES!

It was a good plane ride today. Partly because of a conversation that took place between me and a new friend, but mostly because I was reminded that God cares. I can either give Him my anxieties, or I can go on carrying my own luggage. After a long day at three different airports, my shoulders are tired from carrying around my luggage. I am thankful that God has invited you and I to drop our luggage, however big or small it may be, and trust Him to carry these things for us because He cares for us!