Emptying Your Backpack

     Well, the other day I was gettin ready in the morning, and doing things to prepare for the day. I knew we would be biking for most of the day, so I began to contemplate on what exactly I would need to do to prepare for that. Whenver I am going to go biking, one of the most important things for me personally is to make sure I am not carrying a ton of stuff, or it will make it that much harder going up and down those hills all day long. Over time, I have found that even carrying around little things, such as a wallet, or even a watch, can be burdensome after ten or fifteen miles in the hot blazing sun. So, I set out unpacking my backpack, keeping only the bare necessities inside. As I did, I had one of those lightbulb moments which I am so utterly fond of!




     When the lightbulb clicked on, I realized that oftentimes throughout life, I had carried a lot of other "extra luggage" that had weighed me down, and even seemingly little things I had carried around had over time become very cumbersome. Sometimes, it was things like little grudges, or an unconfessed lie, or at times, even a sin that I hadn't taken care of. These things weigh us down. I once had someone ask me, "Why carry a rock around with you? You don't have to carry it around. Take care of it, get rid of it, and it will do wonders to help lighten your load. You don't have to carry it around with you".



      I know that as I have taken personal inventory of the things that are weighing me down, I have been able to lighten my load every time, often by quite a lot. As I have done this, my life has become so much easier to live, and my burden has become much lighter. It has brought me a great sense of freedom and happiness, that as I looked back in retrospect, I often have stopped and wondered at why I chose to carry that in the first place.