Baggage Handler

When I was in high school we all took this test to see what we should become after graduation. It was a long questionnaire about what you liked and didnt like to help you choose your career path. After I finished my test I wondered what Hawaii's public school system thought I should be. Well??

A baggage handler.

Now that may be a great job for some but all I could think of was that commercial with the gorilla throwing the suitcases around. What, was I just a gorilla? Is that the highest level I could ever reach?

Today after church I realized I had become exactly that. I am a baggage handler. Person after person shared their hurts and frustrations. life tends to beat us up. time weighs heavy on our souls. Sins past and present leave a indelible mark on us. We are scarred. We have baggage.

I don't think of myself as a particularly great pastor. I care for people and I love to teach the word, but sometimes I feel like I have enough of my own issues to deal with. Nevertheless God called me to do this. But I have found that bearing others' burdens is not so hard. Listening and praying and encouraging is like taking someone's baggage. And how we need to let it go. Jesus invited the weary and heavy burdened to come to Him. God has a heart for people who have baggage. And even though Jesus is the greatest burden bearer of all we can all handle someone elses bags now and then. Bear one anothers burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.