The Gospel According to Gump: Baggage
That Jenny has got some baggage. An
abusive childhood, the loss of her mother at a young age, an alcoholic father.
And as a child, she prayed to God that He would turn her into a bird so she
could fly far, far away from that place; that place that had brought so much
hurt into her young life. God answered her prayer, not by turning her into a
bird, but by sending her to live with her grandma. But if you watch the rest of
the movie in between the two clips we saw today, you would see that Jenny never
really deals with the hurts of her childhood, at least not in a healthy way.
Instead she bottles it all up, she experiments with drugs, she becomes a
drifter, and she gets into one bad relationship after another.
Now, I’m not a psychiatrist or a
psychologist or anything like that, but I would assume that if Jenny would have
gone to see a shrink as an adult, they would tell her that her careless and
self-destructive actions were the direct result of her childhood. The loss of
her mother and abuse by her father caused her to have terrible relationships
and make poor decisions. In other words, it’s not her fault, it’s the baggage
she carried that made her do it. It was almost inevitable.
And it seems like there is lots of
evidence out there to support that type of argument. Children from families
where their parents were divorced are much more likely to get a divorce
themselves. Children who are abused are more likely to experience teen
pregnancy, alcoholism, and psychiatric disorders. The loss of a parent at an
early age increases the risk of substance abuse problems, dropping out of
school, and depression.
So nobody doubts that your past is
going to have an effect on what your future looks like. In other words, the
events of your past are going to shape who you are today. There’s no doubt
about that. However, I think we do have some choices about HOW our past shapes
our future. I don’t think that just because your parents were divorced it means
that you have to get a divorce, right? Just because you experienced abuse
doesn’t mean you have to become an alcoholic. Instead, I believe that your
future is not necessarily determined by your past, but instead your future is
determined by the way in which you carry your past baggage. How do you handle
your luggage?
If I could have my lovely assistant
Joe come on up, I’ll show you just what I’m talking about. Now you see Joe
coming up here and he is a, well, somewhat fit man, right? Joe you’re a strong
guy, you would have no trouble making it through life, right?
But Joe, maybe you got hurt in the
past. Maybe something really bad happened to you. Maybe someone said or did
something to you that was incredibly hurtful. And it has stuck with you. And
you have to carry it around with you wherever you go. (LUGGAGE) Would it be a
little harder to make it through life if you had to carry this with you
everywhere?
Maybe you also had a really bad
relationship or two. Maybe you’ve been wounded by that. And now you’ve got more
baggage (LUGGAGE) to carry around with you. You have it with you wherever you
go, especially in your own marriage. It would make life a little harder to have
to carry this around everywhere you go, too, wouldn’t it?
And Joe, I know you’re a nice guy, but
we all mess up now and then, right? Maybe you’ve got some hidden sins, ones
that you try to keep from everyone. Maybe you’ve left them in the past, but
have never admitted them, or maybe they are something you still struggle with
today. And it’s always on your mind always with you. (LUGGAGE).
And you’ve started to realize in
carrying these things around with you all the time that it has become harder
for you to do things, harder to make it through life. And you have more failures
than others, because you are carrying so much luggage with you wherever you go.
So you know what happens? Your self –doubt increases, and you carry that with
you as well (LUGGAGE).
And as your self-doubt increases,
maybe you end up making some really big mistakes (LUGGAGE). And now those
mistakes follow you wherever you go.
So guess what happens next. You
realize that all of this baggage has severely affected the way you have lived
your life. It has made it really tough to go through life carrying all this
with you wherever you go. And the “what if’s” start to creep in. (LUGGAGE) You
think “What if these bad things had never happened to me? What if I had avoided
those bad relationships? What if that person had never hurt me?” And the what
if’s get carried with you as well.
Folks, this is not the way God has
intended for us to go through life. You cannot experience the fullness of God’s
love and God’s grace when you can’t even see past all the baggage that you are
carrying. But remember, I said I think that the thing about your past that determines your future
is not necessarily what you did or what has happened to you, but the way in
which you choose to carry your baggage.
Joe, you look like you are having a
hard time. I see you have all these “what if’s here,” why don’t I carry those
for you? (TAKE ONE). Because you know
what, God says you don’t have to worry about the what if’s because he’s got
great plans for you. In Jeremiah 29:11, He says, “I know the plans I have for
you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.” So you don’t have to carry those what if’s anymore.
And you know I see you’ve made some
big mistakes. But God says those mistakes don’t have to define who you are. God
loves people who have made mistakes because he re-defines them. He gives them
new names. He used an unbelieving fisherman to be the foundation of his church.
He used a man who persecuted Christians to be is missionary to the gentiles. So
whatever mistakes you’ve made (TAKE ONE), you don’t have to carry with you
because God can make all things new.
And it also looks like you’ve got a
lot of self-doubt, but you know God says that if you put your hope in him, that
you’ll be renewed and you can do anything. So you don’t have to carry that
anymore either. (TAKE ONE) In Isaiah 40:31, He says, “but those who hope in the
Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will
run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
And I know you’ve got some big sins in
your life that you are carrying around, but you know, there is nothing you can
do that is so bad that God can’t forgive you. He will carry that for you (TAKE
ONE). In Psalm 103:12 it says that God will separate you from your sin as far
as the east is from the west, which is pretty far. So you don’t have to carry
that with you anymore.
And those bad relationships from your
past, you really don’t need to carry those with you either (TAKE ONE) because
our God is the God of love. He repairs the broken hearted. And he shows us what
it means to truly love. 1 John 4 says, “God
is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son
into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son.”
But Joe, I see you still have one bag
left. The big one. Your past hurts. You
may feel like those things define who you are and you can never erase your
past. But do you know what it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17? “If anyone is in Christ,
He is a new creation! The old has gone, and the new has come.” You may have
heard me say that before. I really like that verse. And what it means is, your
identity no longer has to lie in the stuff that has happened to you or the
things you have done. Your identity is in Christ. So this (TAKE ONE) no longer
defines you. That doesn’t mean that it never happened. It just means you don’t
have to shoulder the burden for it anymore. Thanks Joe, you can have a seat.
Do you remember the verse that was
read for us at the beginning? Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
You know, we all have baggage, right?
Even for those who have lived a charmed life, no one makes it through
completely unscarred. We all get worn down and broken and tired and at some
point the baggage we are carrying just gets too heavy and we want to give up. So
we do one of two things: we either give up, and resign ourselves to a
less-than-fulfilling life of carrying this baggage around with us, or we cry
out to Jesus, and we let him carry our baggage for us.
I want to read Matthew 11:28-30 for
you again, but I’m going to read it this time in the Message translation of the
Bible. And as I read this, I want you to think about what baggage you are
carrying. Maybe you’re getting close to that breaking point. Maybe you’re at
that point where you are thinking, “God, I’m not sure how much longer I can go
on like this.” If that’s where you are right now, I want you to hear these
words: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned
out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you
how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythm of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting
on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
That sounds like the kind of life I
can handle. I can handle that. I can handle that kind of a free life, but the
thing is, to have that kind of life, I have to let go of my baggage. Jesus will
stand there with open arms, ready to take your burdens, but he won’t pry them
out of your hands. You have to let go. Jenny prayed for God to help her, but
she never let go. She held onto everything. And it made it really hard to get
through life. All she had to do was let go.
Maybe you need to let go of something.
Maybe you need to tell God today, “My baggage is no longer going to define who
I am. You are. I want to give it to you. I want to let go of it all. Instead of
me carrying my baggage, I want you to carry me.”
Because you see the thing is when you
decide to let God carry you, He never lets go. Even when things seem the
darkest, when you are in your darkest hour, when you feel like there is no way
you are going to be able to make it through whatever it is you are going
through, He never lets go.
I’m going to sing a song for you, and
while I do, maybe you need to take some time and pray. Maybe you need to tell
God that you are ready to let go of whatever baggage it is that you are
carrying. Maybe you need to tell God that you are ready to rest in Him. Or
maybe you need to thank God for never letting go. Take some time and talk to
God.
Sing “You never let go”
Not only has He never let go, but 2000
years ago God sent his son to die on a cross, the place where he would shoulder
all the burdens of humanity: yours, and mine. He allowed himself to be broken
and poured out, so that we could rest in him. And he gave us a symbol to
remember this great love by, when on the night before his death…
Holy
Communion
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United