The Luggage of Life
By Tammy Hopson
Mitchell County
“Man, is this suitcase heavy“ I thought to myself as I stood in the parking lot of the college. I had been asked to teach a weeknight class there for Campus Crusade for Christ. “Why in the world did I wear high heels?” I asked myself as I began my journey up to the entrance from the bottom tier of the parking lot. The college seemed to loom overhead as it stood on the hill.
I had carefully planned what I was going to teach. I had taught this same lesson before in my Ladies’ Sunday School class. Because I am a visual person and love object lessons I decided to use a set of bright red suitcases that belonged to my mom. They were old hard vinyl cases that looked like they came out of the 50’s or 60’s. My mom wouldn’t be needing them anyway. The Lord had taken her home just a few months ago. I packed two of the suitcases inside each other to try to make them easier to manage. My lesson was on the weight of discouragement and I was using the suitcases to demonstrate the heaviness and burden of the things we carry. I was excited for the opportunity to share the things I had studied with the class.
The climb was hard. Each tier of the parking lot had a steep set of stairs to get up to the next level and then another and another until you finally reached the main parking lot. The suitcases got heavier and heavier. The sun was bright and hot and my face became red. My feet started to sting as I lugged the suitcases up each step. It wasn’t long and I was barely moving up the hill. I kept looking ahead at how far I had to go. “What am I doing?” I asked as I questioned myself and my purpose. “I bet I look stupid. Nobody wants to hear this” By the time I got to the college door I looked like a sweaty mess. The classroom was on the second floor and I was worn out. “I’m going to look horrible. Maybe I shouldn’t even go in.”
I went in anyway and began my lesson with the few students who came. I placed the three red suitcases on the table in front of me and in big black letters I labeled the small one DISAPPOINTMENT, the middle one DOUBT, and the largest one DISCOURAGEMENT.
I went on to expound on the meaning of these three words and the weight they have as we attempt to carry our luggage through life. Holding up the smallest one I taught how much disappointments can affect us. They are the missed appointments in life. Things that should have happened but didn’t. For example, I should have had a better childhood but something happened and I didn’t. Or the most recent disappointment I experienced, my mother should not have died at age 56, but she did. The list is endless for us all and if we do not seek God’s help, we will haul our dissapointments with us and the heaviness will negatively affect our lives.
Holding up the next suitcase I began to explain how disappointments can get so heavy that they cause us to DOUBT the goodness of God, our purpose in His plan, and His love for us. Lastly, I held up the largest suitcase. The heaviest of them all. The one that will truly immobilize us. The baggage of DISCOURAGEMENT. It is so dangerous to carry this load. If we carry DISAPPOINTMENT and DOUBT too long we will become discouraged in our walk with God. Discouragement is the lack of courage. It cripples us. Discouragement can get so heavy that we just want to sit down. We will lose our motive to do much of anything and we may decide to just give up. It is then that another deadly “D” word may occur. Discouragement can lead to despondency or depression and cause us to live a defeated life.
In my class that day I told them that the biggest antidote for disappointment, doubt, and discouragement is the Word of God. In the bible, there are so many scriptures that will help us through difficult times. It is impossible to pick only one. But one of them is Joshua 1:9 which says “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
As we attempt to manage our lives and live through difficult times, God says He is with us. He is walking right alongside us. He longs for us to let Him carry not only our DISAPPOINTMENT, DOUBTS, AND DISCOURAGMENT but often He carries US. If I live my life in constant awareness that even though painful things have happened, and even though life is hard, God is still there helping me through and He is stronger than me, His shoulders can carry my load and I can travel this world “lighter”.
When meditating on what I would write to you this month I thought about the weight of discouragement and remembered this lesson from 2004. I want so badly to show you those suitcases and to demonstrate this lesson to you. I want to do this object lesson with you. But instead, I have told you the story of my class that day, and how I carried the luggage up the steep college hill. I know God was with me through every step. As I taught, a woman in my class sat with tears in her eyes as she listened. She too had just lost her mother and she was carrying heavy disappointment in her heart. I believe the lesson I taught that day was for her and I know that through that tough climb, God was with me urging me forward into the classroom to speak on His behalf and help His hurting daughter.
Perhaps today this lesson is for you too. Are you trying to carry the luggage of life all by yourself? If so Jesus says “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.
Let’s let God carry our luggage.
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Tammy Hopson has been a Mitchell County resident since 1992 and lives in Red Hill with her family. She is a mother of six children and grandmother of 14. She has been a member of Hoyle Memorial Christian Fellowship in Lawndale, NC since 1992 and helps lead The HMCF Youth Group.
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