Whew, what an afternoon! We are thankful to the many people who helped make our packing today go quickly. I'm thankful to the UPS, FedEX and the USPS men and women who helped deliver all of what we needed and were ordered for our trip. I'm thankful to our local church body and teammates who purchased what we still wanted to bring. Pastor Dave and I have a few more things on our shopping list, but we are still very thankful that our list is very little. After inventoring what we needed to bring and sorting it out yesterday and this morning it is all in suitcases and will be ready to travel very soon. In our teammates' homes the laundry is getting done and the things that we personally need to pack are being gathered as well.
This afternoon (well early evening) I started thinking about what things I wanted to leave behind. I was thinking back on a lesson from The Immersion Experience (www.AphesisGroup.com) discipleship process that I had reviewed last week as part of a training time. In this lesson we were encouraged to look at our inner lives and the "personal baggage" that we carry into relationships. It's this "personal baggage" that I want to leave behind on this trip.
Here are the things that I want to leave behind: being a people pleaser, fears, being performance-oriented, isolating when hurt, my desire to control, my trust issues, anxiety/worry, feelings of worthlessness and insecurities of my personal worth.
I want to take some things on my trip too! Here are some things that I want to take: love, gentleness, forgiveness, being at peace with others, accepting of others, comfort in stating the truth, being relationship oriented, not afraid of suffering for the well being of others, hope, consistency and grace.
I am confident that I can only leave these things behind and take these things as I renew my mind with remembering who I am in Christ.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1 ESV)
What about you? What do you want to leave behind? What do you want to take?
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