“I don’t need that bag,” I said. “Or this one really that’s
just clothes to donate. This could wait until January, but that needs to go in
the suitcase!”
“Ok, we are at 53 pounds, what else can we take out?” my
aunt said.
“Uhhhh……”
I wish this could be made up, but this was my life just a
few hours ago.
I’m the worst at traveling light. I might need my running
shoes and extra charger and light blue thin sweater if it got warm and my three
journals! Then about halfway through packing I adopt the mindset that I need
nothing and will buy everything when I get there. These two extremes mean I
fight during packing and end up with more than I need of one thing, like shoes
and books, and completely missing the other, toothpaste, contact solution and
even glasses (this has happened).
So when I found out I got a job in Gainesville (yes I’ll be
permanently moving back to work with kids!! Ekk more details coming!), I was
stoked because all I had to do was load my car up and go.
Or that’s what I thought.
On my way to Florida, my car died on the
interstate/highway/expressway/road where cars and semis go super fast and cars
should not die. I wish there were a more professional term, like the radiator
blew or the transmission failed. Truth be told, Sven (my green Honda Accord)
died. There’s no other way to describe the sound he made after being in stop
and go traffic for 45 minutes. He refused to move and stopped us there, in the
right lane of I-65 South.
Through a series of circumstance, I got off the road, into a
hotel in small town Kentucky, fed, back to the car garage, picked up by family
and friends and brought back to Chicago. With ALL my stuff.
If you ever want to know what you truly need, breakdown.
Seriously, you probably don’t really need half of it, maybe even most of it. I
found myself sorting clothes I didn’t know I owned and looking at books I never
read this afternoon.
“What do you absolutely need when you go?” asked my aunt.
“I don’t know.”
As I began to sort I found that what I thought I needed was
excess. Books to study from, coats that won’t get worn and binders filled with
notes I haven’t read adding weight to my suitcase. Weighing me down.
I think we do this in life too. We fill our schedules and
time with things that we think we need, and they are all good things, like
books and talking and travel and friends, but we lose focus of what we really
need. The essentials, the basics.
Maybe this is what Christ meant when He said to the rich
young ruler sell everything and follow me. He wanted him to lose the excess to
gain the essential. What he actually needed rather than what he thought he
needed. Christ didn’t want him weighed down.
I still am awful at packing and probably and taking back way
more than I actually need. However, I want to start looking at essentials, the
basics in my life that I really need.
“How much do those bags weigh?” I asked, praying it was not
over, because I had no more room and the car was already gone.
“49.5 pounds each. You’re good.”
Look out Florida, me and my 49.5 pound bags are coming for
you!
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