Traveling Light: Max Lucado

We may not start life with a lot of baggage, but the older we get, the more we seem to pick up along the way.

You might be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. But what if you didn't have to?

The seductive burden of self-reliance goes back to the garden of Eden. And incredibly, we've been carrying the weight ever since. But what if there was a better way?

Want. What a curious piece of luggage. Like an optical illusion, this is one bag you can never seem to fill. The fuller it is, the emptier it seems.

The frayed, worn-out duffel bag of weariness is a heavy burden we were never meant to bear.

Worry splits our energy between today's priorities and tomorrow's problems. But worry has never brightened a day, solved a problem, cured a disease, or put food on the table.

Even when our surroundings inspire hopelessness, we can trust that God will lead us safely home. He is our shepherd. The Good Shepherd. And He never leaves our side.

Guilt is a heavy burden. An ugly burden. There's only one place to place your guilt: the cross. Calvary is the compost pile for guilt. Would you like to leave yours there as well?

Follow the good shepherd through green pastures, the land of plenty to which he leads us!

We fear the unknown. We carry the weight of the grave like a suitcase full of headstones. But what if there was a better way?

God has the last word on death, sorrow, grief and despair. It's the promise of eternity. Our future hope gives us the strength to drop the black bag of grief for good.

Fear stops us in our tracks and sends chills down our spine. It plagues us and paralyzes us. It holds us in a steel tight grip. Or does it? What if we're the ones gripping onto the burden of fear?

Could loneliness be our loving Father's way of getting our attention?

Dwelling on the past can turn the stoutest of hearts into a tailspin of guilt and shame. Shame reminds us that we can't change the things we have done, anymore than we can undo the harm done to us.

Life is full of disappointments, both big and small. We can let them weigh us down, or we can take them to the Shepherd, who cares about everything that concerns us.

What if the cup the Good Shepherd placed in your hand is already overflowing with blessings?

Fill a bag with every doubt, question, excuse, or demand. It still would not be too heavy for God.

Believers are prone to bouts of homesickness, because we know our "forever home" is not on this earth.