Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. Matthew 10:9-11 (NIV)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Happy New Year everyone! When I sought out the Lord for a word to share with you this week, he gave me two of them (isn’t that just like God, always overdelivering?)—Travel Light. He then showed me how those words tied in with the end of one year and the beginning of another.
When a year ends, we often talk about “leaving it behind.” I believe this is what the Lord wants us to do with our pain, our failures, our shortcomings, our disappointments, anything that would be an added weight for us to emotionally carry into the new year. We can't renew our minds, as Paul writes in Romans, if we are focused on the past. We can't fully embrace the new if we can't let go of the old.
On Tuesday at work, I had a bad afternoon--a couple of major issues came up and showed weaknesses in our internal control systems. In order to effectively move forward with addressing those problems on Wednesday, I had to let go of the feeling of defeat from Tuesday and seek the Lord's wisdom from lessons learned to start charting the course for victory. Continuing to travel weighed down with the burden of previous shortcomings only slows or stops us completely from making progress and applying the wisdom gleaned from experience in our jobs, relationships, and our lives in general.
While we're looking forward, we need to acknowledge we don't know what is coming. When Jesus was instructing His disciples on how to take ministry on the road, he directed them to travel light. In those days, you couldn't exactly pack up a U-Haul with your wardrobe, accessories, makeup, gadgets, etc. Traveling with much more than the clothes on your back would drastically slow you up and mean that you could not cover nearly as much territory.
If we are constantly battling with memories and scars from our past, that's going to distract us from what is ahead and divert our strength from moving closer to God's will for ourselves and helping others do the same. Jesus wanted His disciples unburdened with anything not absolutely necessary for survival so they could move in to a town quickly, and them move out just as quickly and head toward the next one. Most of our lives are filled with multitasking, and we have to be pretty nimble to keep up with all of the demands. We'll be in better position to do that if we are traveling light.
I found a song that I believe gives a good illustration of this word, so I'm sharing some of the lyrics and a link to the You Tube video.
Excerpt of lyrics to "Traveling Light" performed by Joel Hansen and Sara Groves
Well I was doubling over the load on my shoulders
Was a weight I carried with me everyday
Crossing miles of frustrations and rivers a raging
Picking up stones I found along the way
I staggered and I stumbled down
Pathways of trouble
I was hauling those souvenirs of misery
And with each step taken my back was breaking
'Til I found the One who took it all from me
Down by the riverside
(Down by the riverside)
I laid my burdens down,
Now I'm traveling light
My spirit lifted high
(I found my freedom now)
I found my freedom now
And I'm traveling light
You can also watch the video here:
I hope you are blessed and encouraged by this song and that the Lord has spoken to you through this note in a way that shows you how to enter 2011 traveling light and wind up flying high as the year unfolds.
We've already suffered a loss in 2011, as Pastor Linda Harris was called up to heaven on Wednesday. Many of us had the opportunity to be touched by her life, especially her wisdom and sweet spirit. Please join me in praising God for the wonderful blessing Linda was and prayer for her partner, Janice LaCount, as she moves through this period of mourning and transition.
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