One of the most powerful things at Women of Faith in Omaha (and this truly is one of them as there were several and I’ll be getting to those) was the drama from Katharine Everett. She performed three times and each time was a treat but the one that hit me the hardest was on Friday morning.

She dramatized a piece about a 9 year old dealing with her parents divorce. In the piece she showed all the baggage children carry with them from a situation like that.

I really couldn’t help relating to it. My parents did divorce but not when I was nine and in a sense it was almost a blessing. But that isn’t what I’m talking about specifically.  We all carry baggage, even the people we think are perfect carry bags.  We all also like to hide our bags. Never really letting anyone see inside because the few times we do it really costs us more than we ever thought possible.

When people see what is in our bags they have the power to either hurt us or help heal us.  Too often we take our bags to other people looking for healing and end up with more bags and pain and we determine again to never let anyone peek inside our bags.

It is only when we take our bags to the cross and leave them there that we find the help and healing we need.  We also need to leave them there at the cross. And that is the hard part for me. You see my baggage is comfortable. I know it. It might be heavy but it’s not as scary as living life without it. All my defense mechanisms are wrapped up in my bags (as are all of yours I’m sure.) I know how to cope with life because of my bags.

Oh Jesus, take my bags and teach me to cope with life Your way.”