A Matter of Faith...

By Carol RoundFinding Your Place

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 (NIV)

I am not moving again! Unless, of course, God insists.

Because I have moved four times in the past six years, I have become quite adept at packing. My most recent move was less than five miles—from one neighborhood to another—but it still required finding boxes of different sizes to accommodate my belongings.

As I surveyed the pile of unpacked boxes containing my possessions, I sighed. “Not again, Lord,” I thought. I had downsized once before but now found myself facing another mountain of things.

Two years ago, when I moved from one town to another, I gave away, threw away, or sold stuff that I knew I could live without. During my recent move, my routine was the same—donate, toss or sell. However, I still have too much stuff.

That stuff included an Easter basket that belonged to my youngest son, now grown. My grandchildren discovered the basket during the move. Adding to the chaotic mess, the two had scattered the fake green grass and brightly colored plastic eggs from one end of my new house to the other. It was a reminder of how much I hated packing and moving.

It also triggered a memory of the way I used to pack when I was planning a trip. My girlfriends would tease me because I never traveled lightly. Prepared for any scenario, I toted more luggage and bags than Carter has liver pills. (If you haven’t heard that expression, you must be under 50.)

As each birthday passes, I realize that we go through life with too much baggage. If it’s not physical baggage, then it’s emotional baggage. We can choose, however, to unpack both kinds of baggage and lighten our loads. The first is easier than the latter.

For many years, I not only carried around too much physical baggage that hampered my life, I hung onto emotional baggage that hindered my growth. I was in my late 40s—not that long ago—before I began to unearth, examine, weed out and rid my life of those things that held me back from becoming the woman that God created me to be.

Until I let go of the past, I could not move on. When I was finally able to “unpack” all of that junk and dispose of it, I began to find my place in this world. However, I could not do it without the Lord’s help.

A friend in my new neighborhood recently commented about emotional baggage that a relative still toted after more than 30 years. She said, “I told her that she just needed to let it go and move on.”

Someday, as God’s offspring, we will move to a permanent place where we will reside eternally. No packing. No unpacking. I look forward to that final move. Do you?


A collection of Carol Round’s most popular faith-based columns is now available in book form. For more information, readers can reach her at carolaround@yahoo.com