In my bag...

Day Seventeen - Sundays are generally busy days for me. I work at a church. I've been doing it for quite awhile and it generally seems like a good fit for my gifts and abilities. I enjoy people. I love to see growth and change in people and community. I get to teach from a really inspired book...the Bible. I get to mentor young people. Sometimes I even get to sing. This morning what was in my bag as I headed off to church is a pretty good snapshot of me. In my bag were my Bible, my laptop (we watched a podcast this morning), and some music.
All the items in my bag were essentials to the tasks that I needed to do this morning. There were no extra things. I wasn't toting around stuff that I didn't need. That makes me crazy. I think that I strive to simplify in most areas of my life. The more extra stuff that I carry around, the non-essentials, are just weight. I'm talking about more than a bag that I put stuff in. I don't know how many of you live with expectations, but sometimes those things really can drag you down. When you live to please others and make others happy you will always play a losing game. When I say that I strive to simplify, I mean that I try to please one person only...God. When I do get the right perspective on things, I feel lighter. I don't feel like the expectations of other people are weighing me down. I feel free; like I may be on to something profound. I feel like I can be real and honest about who I am and what I'm about. There is clarity when I have the right things in my bag! I'm not saying that I don't care what other people think, but I do worry less and less about pleasing everyone if I am focused on pleasing the only one who really matters anyway.

My encouragement to you today is to pack light. Don't carry around things that you don't have to. Live to please the One that matters.