Casandra Martin

I was driving today and saw an interesting sign. It was an advertisement for a storage facility and in big, bold letters it said, “Do you have extra baggage? Store it here.” I know that the sign is appropriate for the business, but to be honest, it touched a tender place in my heart.

Do you have extra baggage? Me too.

The truth is that we all carry around baggage. It comes in all shapes and sizes. The baggage that we carry weighs us down, steals our joy, invades our peace, and disrupts our contentment. Guilt, shame, disappointment, and discouragement have a way of piling up, settling in, and squeezing our faith in a vise. We pick up our baggage in the morning and it influences how we see ourselves and our day. We lug our baggage with us, bumping into our opportunities and choices where it colors everything with a tinge of fear. We tuck our baggage in with us at night. Exhausted, we lay awake worrying about our baggage.

There are moments when we long for freedom from our baggage. What if we could set it down? What if we could let it go? But our baggage tenaciously clings to our hearts. I am just not strong enough or brave enough to break its grip on my soul.

God doesn’t want us to store our baggage. He wants to carry it. He wants to lift it off your shoulders and free you to experience all of the abundance and joy He has planned for you. Instead of storing our baggage in our hearts, souls, minds, actions, and relationships, God wants us to bring it to the cross and leave it there.

My Jesus Resolution is to take my baggage to the cross. At the cross, Jesus shows me His willingness to carry my heaviest loads. At the empty tomb, He unleashes the power that I need to break free from my heart-numbing burdens. I don’t have to drown in guilt or suffer with shame. In Christ, I am set free.