Are you pushing a wheelbarrow?

Baggage.  When this blog first came about, there was an article about the baggage we carry around with us all of the time.  It's pretty much a fact that we all carry some baggage.  I know, that in my brokeness, I carry a lot more baggage than I would like to.  Fortunately, most christian men I know have a really good idea how to deal with the baggage they carry to make life, both for themselves and their families, much more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Now I will switch gears here for just a minute.  I got a phone call from a buddy the other day.  He was off on a trip, and at the time was out in Provo, Utah.  It was morning, and he was just sitting outside of the motel enjoying a cup of coffee, the sunrise, and the quiet of the early hour....or so he told me.  Not long into the conversation, however, it became quite clear that he was really agitated about something, and it didn't take long before he started to relate how extremely angry he was over some things that had happened to his brother, by someone else, at a point in time many, many years before.  After listening to him it was quite clear that none of what he was so very angry about had anything to do with him personally.

I let Richard vent and carry on for a while as I listened to him start to think through some of the strategy he might follow to make the un-rightable matter right.  Finally I suggested to him that he needed a wheelbarrow.  When he took a breather and asked what I was talking about I offered the following to him (paraphrased):

We all carry our own baggage.  It is a blend of mistakes we haven't forgiven ourselves for, regrets of things done or not done, scars from things that happened to us over which we had no control....all of those things that impact how and who we are at any given time.  But the baggage is our own stuff.  We are ill equipped to carry the baggage of others, over which we have no control at all.  It simply weighs us down to a critical point.  Yes, we need to feel a sense of empathy for those others, and yes, we are called to be encouragers and helpers, but we are not called upon to carry their baggage for them.  To carry our own baggage and theirs would cause us to need a wheelbarrow.

To grow as an effective man, husband, and father, we need to know that we have our own baggage and then we need to know how to grow through it.  What we don't need is to push a wheelbarrow filled with the baggage of others at the same time.