Checking the Baggage (Burying the Biases)

Along the way I’ve discovered that I’m the one who decides how others’ actions will affect me.

Unfortunately, I bring suitcases loaded down with my issues, experiences, thoughts, and feelings to each circumstance. At every encounter, I open the suitcases and drag out every single item before I determine how I’ll react to each situation.

I meticulously sort through the years of baggage (that I conveniently brought), and then use its contents to carefully pick out the “perfect” outfit and dress the situation up in it. This well-intentioned ritual helps me to explain the intentions of those around me. Unfortunately these biases often cause me to dress a bad situation in a tuxedo or a celebration in rags—thus arriving at inaccurate conclusions.

If I am not deliberate in my choosing, if I don’t find a way to set aside my biases, I may inadvertently put on the wrong outfit and thus be inappropriately dressed for the banquet, the hike, the wedding, the fight…

Relying on my own interpretation significantly decreases my odds of doing the right thing. Thankfully God knows the heart—mine and the other persons’. I can fully rely on Him to guide me to the right conclusions and to take the right actions.

So join me as I dump my baggage and step out into the world, allowing God’s light to illuminate the dark corners of every situation I encounter; join me as I allow Him to guide me to the right conclusions, and then to the right actions.

Naked and Vulnerable (Thoughts from the Pot): Why haul your heavy baggage through life when you could turn it all over to God?