Find Your BraveSample

I have packed suitcases numerous times, but I still take too much. Just as when we travel, in life we tend to carry excess luggage. If you are going to make it through any storm, you must throw some of it overboard before the weight of it sinks you.

Past hurts are definitely part of the excess baggage we need to throw overboard. Pain from previous events can take up excessive amounts of space in our hearts. It’s as though each hurt comes with its own set of luggage, and each stuffs itself into the next. It’s as if we carry within us a set of Matryoshka dolls, those wooden nesting dolls. Inside the big one is a smaller one. And inside that one is another even smaller one.

Painful experiences are like that set of dolls; each carries its own luggage. Most of us have been betrayed at some point. If we haven’t dealt with it, we carry the baggage of bitterness. If we don’t deal with that bitterness, it breeds unforgiveness. And the unforgiveness breeds resentment. And the resentment creates envy. And envy harbors distrust. All that luggage! If we don’t lighten our load and intentionally lose some of this stuff, we can spend the rest of our lives crippled by the weight.

I am an extrovert, so I find it easy to open my heart and life to people. With that also comes the risk of hurt, and I have been wounded a few times.

People who said one thing and did another. People who were careless with my feelings and my heart. People who said unkind things about me. People who were silent when I had hoped they would have my back. Each one feels like a punch to the gut.

So how do we get rid of the power past hurts hold over us? By practicing forgiveness. Whatever its source, in order to get rid of the baggage of past pain, we have to be willing to forgive—sincerely and deeply—those who have hurt us. It is not a feeling, it is an act of our will.

Honestly, I have to work at it. Most of the time, I think I’m doing pretty well by just not killing someone. But I get the feeling Jesus wants us to be overachievers in this aspect.

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:15 (NIV)