The holidays . . . no more rucksacks

THE HOLIDAYS. . . no more rucksacks
I love this time of year. Some people get really stressed out by the holidays—not me—heck, I’ve been playing Christmas music since the day after Halloween. The only thing is, when Thanksgiving Day gets here, it goes so fast! When Christmas Day finally gets here, it is over far too quickly for me. I’ve been thinking that maybe both of those are so because I don’t really prepare my heart all that well in advance.

I should like to give Christ a gift this year for Christmas. . .as I was thinking of that the other morning, I pictured myself going before Him,
He who was ensconced on the throne. But as I kept trying to approach, my way grew more difficult; as I tried to step closer, I felt weights holding me back from behind. The more I strained, the harder my way grew. (Can you picture that in your mind?) As I sat and pondered the meaning of that mental picture, I realized I would have a hard time approaching the Lord with a gift until I had gotten rid of what I let hold me back, and weigh me down.

Segue . . . about 20 years ago, in another galaxy far away, I used to teach these grueling ‘abs’ classes—you know, where we did nothing but sit-ups and every conceivable derivation thereof for thirty minutes. One guy who was a faithful attender and a professional workout dude. He was an army vet and lived off his pension, and just worked out all day long. At 39 years of age, 6 ft., 6 in. tall, Tom weighed 202 pounds, and had just two percent body fat. ‘You get the idea? One thing he did was run along the beach, dragging a 75-pound rucksack behind him. What an image. It was hard work and a lot of strain on Tom to run fast with that dragging through the sand behind him.

Unless you are a workout junkie, you are not meant to go through life dragging proverbial heavy rucksacks behind you . . . the contents of your rucksack might be different, probably is—what would yours have. . . worry? Or guilt? Or unconfessed sin? Or unrealized dreams? Or a broken heart? Or what? What would your life be like if you weren’t dragging that around?

Hey, I’ve got an idea--let’s pull the crud out of our rucksacks, and expose it to the light . . . let’s name it. Then, let’s give it to God to sort out for us--get proactive about it. Invite God to come and ‘make new’, to heal. “The challenge is to let God be who he wants to be. A part of us clings to our aloneness and does not allow God to touch us where we are most in pain. Often we hide from him precisely those places in ourselves where we feel guilt, ashamed, confused, and lost. Thus we do not give him a chance to be with us where we feel most alone,”♦ or a chance to restore us.¨

You might consider searching the Scriptures to get God’s mind on what has drug you down. Worry? “Do not worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything, and the God of peace will guard your hearts and mind, and keep them quiet and at rest in Christ Jesus.”1
Weighed down by guilt? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”2
Unrealized dreams? “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”3

Feeling far from God? “Then you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.4 Broken hearted? “The Lord is near the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 37.18

Crippled by pain from your past/childhood? Jesus came to bring freedom to the captives.

Here’s the thing--Scripture speaks to everything that concerns God’s children.

So let's unpack our rucksacks. . . give our burdens to Him. . . then, we can truly give thanks this week on the day when o nation chooses to stop and practice thanks giving. Then, we can ask God what the best gift we could give Him for Christmas . . . huh, we might even be able to get near Him to present it!
What could we give?
Hmmm. . . I challenge you to think about it, and then we’ll talk.

Christine
podcast: www.pastorwoman.com

♦Henri Nouwen, “Gracias”, 1983
1Philippians 4.6-7, New Living Translation
21 John 1.9
3Psalm 37.4
4Jeremiah 29.12-13
5Psalm 34.1