Packing For Vacation? Leave Your Baggage Behind

All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter. 

– Psalm 74:17

My family is getting ready to go on our annual trip to Lake Powell in Utah.  If you’ve never been to Lake Powell, imagine filling the Grand Canyon up with water and turning it into a playground.  We waterski, tube, jet-ski, and cliff jump.  Well, my husband and the kids do.  I’m afraid of heights, so I’m content to just floating down the slot canyons or nap on the boat.  Since the temperature on the lake will be close to 100 degrees, we will live in the water all day.   I can’t wait!

Where’s your favorite summer vacation spot?  What fond memories have you collected there over the years?  Do you find once you reach your summer vacation destination, you relax and are more content than anywhere else?  

Contentment is such a tricky emotion.  In the past, I’ve found myself on a “dream vacation” unable to stop worrying about my concerns back home.  I tend to pack my problems in my suitcase and them along with me.  

Harry Chapin sings a song with the lyrics, “You can travel 10,000 miles and still stay where you are.”  He’s absolutely right.  We take our emotional baggage with us on vacation.  How ridiculous it that?

Paul in Philippians 4:11-13 shares the “secret” of contentment.  He says, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

Paul stayed in fancy houses were servants brought him delicious foods.  We can stay in five star hotels or all inclusive resorts.  Paul also experienced life locked in a Roman prison.  We can get locked up in our own prisons of problems, bitterness, anger, resentment, or addiction.  Paul had contentment everywhere he went.  Can we tap into his secret? 

Paul’s contentment was grounded in two principles

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• Knowing God intimately.   In doing so, Paul was able to see things happening from God’s perspective.  His mind was elevated to an eternal viewpoint where God rules and reigns no matter what. There’s contentment in releasing the control to God.

• Adopting God’s priorities.  While chained to a Roman guard, Paul shared his faith in Jesus instead of complaining about prison food.  He kept his eyes on Jesus at all time and looked to Him for strength every day.  

So this summer, let’s take Jesus with us on our vacation and leave our emotional baggage at home.

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