Travel Smart

When I worked in Corporate, much of my job required me to fly—both domestically and internationally. And while many may still believe that flying for a living would be great deal of fun and excitement—more than anything, it was often exhausting to say the least.

At the time, we lived in a small but well-traveled city in the heart of America. One of the greatest challenges because of where we lived was that any trip usually meant a stop-and layover at a larger airport—before I could head to my real destination. Then I would take at least one—and sometimes two connections to get me to my final destination. Often, just as a result of the travel and wait time it meant that I had to spend the night either before or after—even for a one day trip. As a result, it was always important to travel smart.

That meant that even the luggage I took had to be thought out, because usually once you landed…there was a long, sweaty haul from your gate to your connecting gate—often with barely enough time—even if you ran to get to your connecting gate! So carrying the essentials for what you needed for your travel was important. Especially since I would always pack more than I needed—until my wife decided to help me travel lighter.

Since it was essential that I have my computer with me, I was already carrying a computer bag/briefcase. My wife’s goal was to see I couldn’t get my clothes for travel in that same bag. Since most of my trips were 1-2 day trips, the recommendation was a good one. The truth is that I often carried too much with me when I traveled…and it made it cumbersome to move quickly…and that’s what the Lord told me to share with you church—

• Most of us are carrying too much…and its slowing us down and wearing us out.
• We are not in position to move quickly when the Lord has need of us!

You Are Traveling Too Heavy…

So I wanted to share three points that should help remind you of the challenges of carrying too much.

1. We are too loaded down…the weight of what we are carrying is too heavy: Lighten Up!
2. We are carrying things that we should have put down long ago: We have too much baggage!
3. We are so overloaded that the weight of our baggage is delaying us—and slowing us down! We must be ready to move!
   

   Traveling too heavy…

#3-Be Ready to Move

You are so overloaded that the weight of your baggage is delaying you—and slowing you down!

The Children of God in the Wilderness is a biblical story that demonstrated the power of God to do great works on the behalf of His people.

• There were the miracles of deliverance that freed the nation to begin their journey out of captivity;
• There were miracles during the Exodus of the people during their journey to the Promised Land;
• And there were miracles that were afforded to the Children of God even in the Wilderness.

There were a couple of miracles that are impossible to miss that show that the people of God traveled light—except for the wealth that was taken received from their captors!

God provided them with Manna from Heaven

One of the greatest challenges for any large group is that you have to feed them on a regular basis. Can you imagine the size of the food that they would have had to carry around with them on a regular basis? Let alone the food that they would have consumed over a forty year period!

The food alone would have been the limiting factor in the survival of a Nation because they would have never made it from Babylon and through the Red Sea carrying such a great weight of food! And surely the Egyptian army would have been able to catch up with them if they had to haul the required food for such a great multitude—even if they had even a minimal amount of food for the first week…!

Most of the children of the Modern Age often wonder what people did without television to entertain them! Most don’t realize that the number one job for the families before the Modern Times centered on getting food and cooking and storing food!

Their clothes didn’t wear out.

They only needed one outfit. Now I know most of us find that undesirable—but during their time in the Wilderness, they never had to worry about their clothes because the Lord had made it so their clothes didn’t wear out. So there were no cotton looms or animal skins on pack mules to ensure that they had enough material to make clothes for the next forty years or so!

God ensured that there would be no issues related to food or clothing that would delay His children as they moved into their Promise! God is trying to accelerate you to a new place in Him…but you are overloaded with stuff!

• We must make sure that we are ready to move when God says move—without worrying about things that will delay or slow us down!
• When God says move—We must Trust that He has already made provision!
• When God says move—He is delivering us to our Promise!

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Matthew 6:25 NKJV

#2 We Are Carrying Too Much Baggage

We are carrying some things that we should have put down long ago!

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 KJV

We are reminded through scripture that everything that is a weight to us…everything that is a burden to us…should be laid down. That is, it isn’t supposed to go with us. The Lord Jesus told us to:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV

There is a teaching that compares the human capability to carry difficult things as a leaky bucket. Why a leaky bucket? Because

whatever emotional difficulty that we try to suppress still manifests in different ways! And no matter how good we think we are at holding our issues on the inside—they still manage to leak out into the lives of those around us. Don’t believe me? Ask those who love you!

We leak, because God didn’t design us to hold on to things that He can fix!

And when the load becomes too great for us—even the best of us become like leaky buckets…that which we are trying to hold onto…begins to leak out of us.

Too many a newlywed will find that getting married is a wonderful thing; but living together is hard. Stuff that you thought was cute…ain’t cute anymore…. The stuff you didn’t reveal or deal with before the wedding begins to leak out into your nice clean marriage…and you find yourself saying…”I don’t want to get an argument started…!”

But what you will find is that after a while that anger or frustration that you have been holding on to will begin to leak out. It will leak out even when you are trying to have a good time…it will leak out when you least expect it. But God never told you to hold on to things like this…lest it turn into wrath!

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-28   NKJV

When we learn to trust the Word of God…even though it is difficult we learn to—

Air out your issues so that you don’t have to carry it around when you should have already put it down!

#1 Lighten Up!

You Are Too Loaded Down...The Weight of What You Are Carrying is Too Heavy…

I began the conversation this morning talking about my travel bag—after getting it together, I was able to carry all my belongings for a 1-2 day trip in my computer bag—or as they airport called it, my one personal item. And just in case it might help somebody, here is how I did it:

1. My sport coat that I would need for my business meetings, I could wear while traveling.
2. That meant that at most, I needed a couple of shirts to change the look and if necessary a couple of different ties.
3. And I even had the dry-cleaners fold my shirts–which put them in a plastic package that made it easy to pack. And that slid into another compartment in my bag.
4. My toiletries easily fit into the same bag in a separate compartment in the recommended plastic bag.
5. Lastly, I would take my tennis-shoes and tie the strings together–and loop them around the handle.
6. And just like that, I was able to travel–with no ancillary bags…just the bare minimum for what I needed! But much lighter—I was able to lighten up, and travel much easier!

Too many of us are carrying stuff that is simply weighing us down! In fact, the Lord even now is inspecting our luggage—like a Holy Ghost TSA, He is opening up your baggage and inspecting it! What would He find?

First He (The Holy Spirit) would find that your bag exceeds the legal limit and unless you want to pay more, you need to reduce the weight of your baggage. That is, you need to Lighten Up!

Second, most of our baggage won’t make it through screening! He would likely find that we are over-the-limit in many areas:

• There is too much hurt and despair
• There is too much anger and frustration
• The amount of brokenness—all which exceed the legal limits!
• And fear is not allowed on this trip and must be discarded before you are allowed on the plane!
• And lastly, you would be reminded that you were specifically instructed to not accept packages from any other person—but your baggage is filled with stuff from other people that is the worries and concerns of other people!
• And finally you will be directed to another area where you are searched and have the opportunity to get yourself together…it’s a quiet area, where you can sit and pray and when you do it right…all that over the limit stuff that you were carried, you can leave behind—even the stuff that doesn’t belong to you…!

So that’s it…

1. We have to be ready to move!
2. We are carrying too much baggage!
3. We have to lighten up!

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]