Skip to main content

You Cannot Carry Everything

 


                Recently, I read about a man who decided to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.  To prepare for this 2610-mile journey from Georgia to Maine, he gathered everything that he thought he would need.  His backpack bulged with an audio player for bird calls, a camera, an alarm clock, a radio, and much more.  He was prepared for anything.

                At his first stop, an experienced hiker pulled him aside and suggested that he might be overloaded.  To help him out, the experienced hiker took everything out of the backpack, held each item up, and asked, “Is this worth it? Do you want to carry this for the next 2,000 miles?"  No item, in and of itself, was that heavy.  However, the combined weight and the distance that it had to be hauled, would have made the entire trek a struggle and maybe impossible to complete.  In the end, the man sent home 26 pounds of unnecessary gear.

                As I thought about that incident, I realized that “Is it worth it?  Do you want to keep carrying this?” is a great question for life.

                Too often, we end up carrying things that weigh us down and make life miserable.  Thoughts of anger, fear, guilt, worry, or regret cause us to re-live painful incidents from the past, or imagine some catastrophe in the future.  Eventually, the weight of those emotions becomes too much, and we end up losing hope and joy. We must guard our thinking.  As Psalm 14:30 reminds us, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones”. 

                What do you need to put down?  What do you need to stop dwelling on?  What are you thinking about or imagining that is not serving you well?

                I know that life is not easy.  Sometimes we cause our own trouble and other times we get caught in the wake of the bad decisions that others have made.  However, we always get to choose how we see our circumstances.  We can decide to focus on freedom and happiness.

                In fact, that is God’s offer to everyone.

                As Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Noticing.... Seeing what we need to see and what we miss when we don't

 What we focus on in life matters. Here are some scriptural reminders that will help us see correctly.  https://youtu.be/Rn76tV0ZH8s    
Post a Comment
Read more

New Article: A Path Worth Following

  Jehoram was a terrible king.  He reigned in Judah around the year 850 B.C. and he did not care about God or his people.  His first act as king was to assassinate his six brothers so that no one could challenge his authority.  He was brutal and selfish.   Therefore, when the Bible sums up his life, it says, “Jehoram… passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David” (2 Chronicles 21:20).  Did you catch that?  “To no one’s regret!”  What a terrible phrase for your tombstone. On the other hand, consider a lady named Tabitha.  She lived in the city of Joppa in the first century A.D. and we are told, “… she was always doing good and helping the poor” (Acts 9:36).  She became sick and died.  This caused the community so much grief that they called Peter, who was in the nearby town of Lydda, to come and help them.  When Peter arrived, a crowd gathered, bringing all the robes and other clothing that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Press The Button!

  Consider This:  Press the Button! My favourite TV game show is Jeopardy.  I used to like it even more when my kids were younger, because I could easily beat them and look smart.  These days, after they have grown up and gone to university, it is much more difficult.  However, Jeopardy is still the only game show I will watch. In a book I read, a contestant who did very well on the show shared the secret to his success.  He said (and I am paraphrasing here), “You must press the button before you know the answer.  Everyone on Jeopardy is smart. Everyone knows the answer. The key to winning is to act.  You must jump in and press the button, assuming that your brain will catch up and supply the answer.  If you wait until you are sure, you will be too late!” Press the button! Too often, we hesitate, not because we do not know what to do, but because we do not want to do it.  Sometimes, we fail to act because we are not sure how the situatio...
Post a Comment
Read more