Monday, August 29, 2011

Excuse me sir, could you help me with my baggage?

I took a trip to Florida a couple weeks ago… I also took along a 66 lb. suitcase. 66 seems pretty precise right? It is. They weighed it at the airport and charged me an extra $50 because it was grotesquely overweight. If it had been flying on the plane instead of under the plane, they would have referred to it as a customer of size. I really thought I was doing everyone (and by everyone, I mean my male traveling companions) a favor by cramming all of my necessities into one bag versus several. Obviously I had no intention of being the one to cart that beast all over Florida! Aside from the overweight baggage charge, my “Excuse me sir, could you help me with my baggage?” plan worked out splendidly… until I got home…


As it turns out, it hadn’t really occurred to me that while I had strapping manly men to help me with my baggage as I gallivanted across the country, I was on my own when I got back home. As I sat at the top of the stairs cursing my 66 lb. suitcase, I began to think about a different kind of baggage… the emotional kind. It’s no fun either. I’ll admit it, I’ve got some baggage… and don’t even think about pretending you don’t have a nice set of baggage too! Emotional baggage is messy, painful, and tricky to handle. Really, the best we can do is hope that those who love us will learn to accept our baggage… and in return, we should accept theirs. When you think about it, that nice set of baggage is part of what makes you who you are and vice versa. Most of our baggage is filled up with things like heartbreak, regret, anger, distrust, jealously, secrets, and pretty much every other ugly thing you can think of to cram inside those bags and hide. Here’s where it gets tricky… you can’t let all of those ugly things from your past ruin your future. You can’t refuse to love again because you’ve had your heart broken. You can’t refuse to trust others because you’ve been betrayed. You can’t be jealous when you haven’t been given a reason. What you can do… what you MUST do… is try to accept your baggage, learn your lesson, and move on into the future fearlessly. The things inside that baggage hurt you once. Don’t let them continue to hurt you over and over again by damaging new relationships and filling you with fear and doubt. Life is scary. Life is also an incredible adventure so don’t let your baggage get in the way of allowing you to share that incredible adventure with people you love. When you trust in God’s plan it all starts to come together. Then, it is as simple as asking for help… God will take care of the baggage for you. He’s awesome like that… and He won’t charge you an overweight baggage fee which is pretty generous of Him considering how much baggage we manage to accumulate!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Psychic Readings By Ashley

Fear is… scary. Duh! It’s also kind of paralyzing, confusing, and miserable. Fear is natural. As humans we all deal with it daily in all kinds of ways. We have teeny tiny fears, gianormous fears, and everything in between. Over the years I’ve discovered I’m not so great at dealing with my fears… especially the biggies. I can’t predict the future, and that makes my fears even more horrifying. I was lost a while back and came across this place:


I remember thinking at the time that if I were psychic, I wouldn’t be lost. To me, fear is kind of like being lost. You don’t have the answers, you don’t know how to get where you’re going, and it’s really frustrating. Thankfully, we don’t need a psychic from the wrong side of the tracks to guide our path, that’s God’s job. Remembering that God has it all under control is the hard part… especially when we’re dealing with fear. I’ve got a whole list of defense mechanisms that I use when I’m scared. I recognize them, but I’m not always good at putting a stop to them, stepping back from the situation, and letting God do His thing. I’m not alone in being fearful of the unknown, I’m generally just a bit more self aware than most people. I got scared today. I panicked just a smidge, I cried a lil bit, and I prayed a whole lot! None of the afore mentioned coping mechanisms did all that much to make me feel better, and deep down I know that it doesn’t matter how scared I am or how hard I try to fight back that fear by employing every defense mechanism in my vast arsenal. The reality is that God’s got a plan, and my silly little insignificant fears aren’t going to get in His way. Sometimes the answer is as simple as a deep breath and a few baby steps, and sometimes the answer isn’t simple at all. The trick is to channel your fear into some good old fashioned faith. Today‘s fear grew from something good… which sounds like an oxymoron for sure. Strangely enough, the majority of my fears are that way… mostly because I spend so much time worrying that my fear is going to create a situation where I screw up something really amazing by using all my not so clever fear fighting tactics. It’s a vicious cycle! In dwelling on today’s fears, I had an epiphany. Stop being scared of what lies ahead and simply enjoy right now. Not knowing how the story ends is terrifying for me (which seems odd given my tendency towards being a bit of a free spirit), but pushing aside those fears in favor of a little faith helps me remember that it doesn’t matter how they story ends as long as God is the one writing it...