I’m a chronic over packer. But it never seemed a problem in
the days when I traveled so much.
I had a piece of Hartmann luggage that I loved, and even
though luggage styles had begun to include wheels (oh, how I date myself), I
clung to that bag. I was a fashion buyer, so I couldn’t exactly go into the New
York market looking like a ragamuffin. It was just big enough to hold the
shoes, scarves, and outfits I needed for a week.
I never had to handle the bag much, as I’d check it in
curbside at the Atlanta airport, get a cart at LaGuardia on the other end, and
wheel it to a cab where the cabbie would load it. At the hotel, a bellman would
unload it and get it to my room after check-in.
As I was saying, it never seemed a problem. Except once. And
that was the last time I used that piece of luggage.
A fellow buyer and I had the bright idea to have an
adventure: take a train to New York, leave a few days early, and stay in Washington
en route.
It wound up being an
adventure, all right. When we arrived at Union Station, we found it under serious
renovation.
“Where are the carts?” I cried when we deboarded the train,
scanning the platform through a mob of people.
“I don’t know,” my friend said.
Of course, she didn't need one, smart cookie that she was. She had a bag with wheels.
I looked down at my over stuffed bag. I had no alternative
but to pick it up. I wound up lugging it for what seemed like miles through a
maze of construction to get it to a cab. That trip is one reason my right
shoulder is now about an inch lower than the left. I think my posture was
permanently altered on that trip.
I immediately bought a rolling case on my return.
In the last post, I wrote about a quandary in which I find
myself. And it feels like that piece of luggage. Heavy. And it also seems like
I’ve been dragging it all over Union Station. Alone.
I sense if I were to keep
going like this, the whole thing is going to have a distorting effect on my
spirit just as that luggage had on my posture.
What I keep hearing the Holy Spirit whisper is, “My burden
is light.”
“Walk with me and work with me—watch how I
do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or
ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and
lightly” (Matthew 11:29-30 The Message).
When I remember that vintage suitcase, I’m thankful I won’t
ever have to heft it again. The same is true for that luggage of striving. Here
at the beginning of the New Year, I know that as I keep
company with him, I can permanently throw that heavy bag of striving to the
curb.
If you, too, find yourself loaded down, remember
there’s a better way, a lighter way.
Together, friends, let’s get rid of our
vintage luggage.
In the New Year, we’ll roll with grace.