Unpacking your baggage
 | Author:
Ellie West, Certified NLP Coach/Practitioner Of Hypnosis and Timeline Therapy
Inside Inspiration: Certified NLP Coach/Practitioner Of Hypnosis and Timeline Therapy |
Unpacking your Baggage
Ellie West
I celebrated 42 years as a Flight Attendant for a major airline this year. As I was thinking about all those years, it dawned on me while packing my bag for my London trip that my bags have been packed for over 40 years. When I come home, I clean my bag, wash my uniform and clothes, then repack my bag for my next trip.
After 9/11, many security-related procedures changed in the United States and abroad, especially air travel. We were repeatedly asked: who packed your bag, has it been in your possession since the time you packed it, and has anyone given you anything to carry? They wanted to know if the bags you are carrying were really yours.
Could it be that we have lived with our emotional baggage for so long that we don’t know if it is our baggage? We may even wonder if we are carrying someone else’s baggage. Our bags are sometimes packed so heavily that when we get to our final destination, we wonder why we brought so much stuff. Chances are the stuff you are lugging around sits in your bag…you know…just in case. Is it possible that we use our baggage to hide our stuff or to possibly hide from others?
It seems that we often miss our purpose or calling because of the baggage in our life: the limiting beliefs, anxiety, fears, doubts, and not feeling capable, worthy, or good enough.
In 1Samuel10:22 when Samuel went looking for Saul, he could not find him. Samuel asked God, “Is he anywhere around?” God said, “Yes, he’s right over there…hiding in that pile of baggage. Perhaps Saul’s hiding place could have been both emotional baggage and physical baggage. Saul was jealous of David, the Shepherd boy. Saul did not feel capable, worthy, or good enough. The Hebrew word for baggage is “Keli,” which is translated as bags, gear, and goods. In other words, it was just stuff.
Saul was hiding in “the stuff.” Perhaps we hide in our stuff as a shield to protect ourselves. Some may see us as having it all together, and yet, we are paralyzed and continue to hide. People ran to where Saul was hiding and dragged him out into the open. They saw him as a man with great potential, but Saul didn’t see himself that way. Saul was scared, and he was attempting to hide from the crowd and God himself. He was dragged out of his place of safety and into the safest place he could ever be had he stayed in the center of God’s purpose and plan for his life. Saul used his baggage, his stuff, to hide from his call on his life.
As we continue to read in 1Samuel 17:22, when Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other, David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines, and entered to greet his brothers. David dropped his baggage, his cumbersome stuff and left it in the care of the baggage keeper. We know in this story that the baggage is not emotional baggage but rather tangible stuff. Both weigh down the person carrying the load. David knew that his baggage weighed him down, and he knew that with the baggage, his chances of being all that God called him to be would be significantly lessened. He knew that following God’s call was not something to fear, so he ran towards the call, knowing he was not confined or restricted by all the stuff in his life. David chose to let go of his baggage.
There have been times in my life when I was like Saul, but I am choosing to be more like David, willing to let go of the stuff in my bags that has been holding me back. We have a choice to make: do we live like Saul and hide or live more like David and let go of the heavy baggage that no longer serves us?
Leave behind all that excess baggage that’s weighing you down! Travel light!
To connect with Ellie @coachelliewest https://www.coachinghearttoheart.com
