Packing Light

When I was a kid maybe even before my Dad was a Christian, I can remember my mom tucking me in at night and asking me if I needed to unpack my suitcase. Which meant confessing anything from that day, so that I couldn't go to sleep with a clear conscience. This is an adorable memory I have of my mom, trying desperately to instill the things of God into her children at a very young age.
Confession is good for the body, the mind, the heart and the soul. It is the #1 greatest stress reliever. But it's also the ONLY to travel or pack light.

We take our love, our memories, our hope, our dreams, our beliefs with us everywhere we go...but Christ tells us that we don't have to bear the burden of our sins everywhere, because he already did that for us on the cross. And then he removed them from us, as far as the east is to the west. So even if we wanted to pack them, I couldn't because he's already spread them out at sea.

I was reminded of that sweet story this morning as I thinking about what I need to pack for EL Salvador. We leave this Saturday. And just like the theme for our lives right now(we're practically living out of suitcases anyway), we are trying to live simply, this week we are trying to pack simply and as lightly as possible.
And sometimes the cares of the this life can weigh you down and the anxieties of this world can try to sneak in an hitch a ride on my daily suitcase.
But Christ tells us that we can cast all of our cares on him, for he cares for us. And though there's been days this week that I've wanted to zip myself up in the suitcase and not come out, he tells us that we can travel light...

And honestly is a lesson for this week but it's also a lesson for life in general. We can walk around, travel or prepare for a big life move without worry, anxiety and heartache because he says we can cast (that means like to throw with much force or heave) all of that on him BECAUSE he cares for us. And we can confess our failures and unbeliefs to him and cast all of that on him too because he's already died for that and covered it.

So, I'm traveling light next week to El Salvador. Both Literally and figuratively. All those cares of this life, God will take care of them in his own time and in his own way. Confess our sins and relieve our stress: unpack heavy loads.

It frees us up to serve HIM!