Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Where's My Packing List?


Talk for Great Awakenings given in November, 2012.  This year's theme: Life's a Journey.  

As you’ve heard, today’s topic is “Where’s my packing list?!”  I don’t know a ton about life, but packing is one thing that I actually have some experience in!  I’ve done a fair amount of travel over the past few years, including several trips back and forth to my college in Mississippi, a few international excursions, several road trips, and countless little day trips here and there.  Packing happens to be the one thing that all my trips have in common.  However, packing is never the memorable part of the trip.  Yes, it is a necessity, but no, it’s not what I look forward to.  I think of packing like I think of doing chores.  It’s convenient and helpful in life, but not super fun.  I also don’t realize its importance until I forget to do it. Then I realize the full impact it has on my trip.  Really, the way you or I pack could make our trip super awesome or super stressful. 

I have two goals when I pack.  The first one is speed.  I hate packing, so I usually save it until the last minute.  You might say, "hmmm...is speedy packing really your goal, or is it just something you force yourself into because you save it for the last minute?"  My answer is Yes - Yes to both – it’s my goal and I inadvertently make it forced.  But speediness is predominately my goal because, as we’ve established, packing is not memorable.  It’s just something that must be done.  So if that’s the case, it should be as quick and concise as possible.  This usually results in me going around the room in circles – grabbing a handful of socks here, a t-shirt or two here, then circling back around to my sock drawer to grab some sunglasses, which for some reason I decided to keep there, then across to the bathroom for some travel sized containers, then back to the sock drawer, then back to the bathroom to fill the containers, etc.  It’s quick, but kind of stressful.   

My second goal is to always be prepared.  For women, there’s nothing worse than pulling in to your final destination, often feeling harried and exhausted from your travels, only to find out that you left all your underwear at home.  I mean seriously!  Underwear, for women, does not have a simple “pick up a five-pack at Walmart” fix.  There are so many different styles, sizes, and colors that it immediately becomes an hour-long hunt just to find something that will work for the duration of the trip.  (Side note: I've been told this isn't true for all women...so maybe it's just me.  And a lot of people I know...)  When I travel, I like to make sure I have enough clothes and enough toiletries to get me through anything I might encounter.  When I fly, I inevitably pack double of everything – once in my carry-on and once in my checked luggage.  You never know when the airline is going accidentally send your luggage to Portland…Oregon.  I traveled to France in February to visit my friend, Bonnie.  On the way back, the airline managed to get my luggage to Pennsylvania, which is where I went through customs.  I actually had my bag at this point!  Then, for some inexplicable reason, they shipped it off to Portland while I continued on my merry way to Manchester, NH.  This marked the final hurrah to an extended and frustrating trip home.  Fortunately, though, I had all I needed (and more!) in my carryon, so my lost luggage did not set me back too much.  And yes, they were able to deliver it to my doorstep the next day.

As you can imagine, all of this prepared-ness easily translates into “over-packing” (which is usually accompanied with an eye-roll from others…).  I’ve had several airport experiences where I’ve packed all but the kitchen sink in my carry-ons.  This is fine when I’m travelling with people, but usually I’m traveling alone and don’t have the benefit of a travel buddy.  This means that every time I have to go to the bathroom in between flights, I have to carry everything into the stall with me – I can’t leave it all unattended at the gate (because I pay careful attention to all security threat advisements that come over the PA system).  By the time make it to the nearest bathroom and finally get the stall door closed around my gigantic backpack, three other people behind me have already peed and left.  But I haven’t even started.  My next step (once I get the door closed) is to figure out what to put on the disgusting floor, since all the coat hooks are missing (naturally).  Then once I figure out my base (usually the part of the backpack that I don’t have to touch), I pile everything else precariously on top, trying to make sure nothing falls.  Then, once that’s complete, I have to somehow maneuver around the pile in order to get to the toilet seat.  By this time, I’m exhausted and I end up just sitting on the toilet for forever.  Whoops.  And then it starts all over again when I’m done and need to exit the stall.  At this point, I swear off flying and decide to just travel by car.  The reality is, I should have thought through how to pack what I actually need – not what I might potentially need.  The point to all of this?  It’s good to be prepared, but packing the kitchen sink is not necessary.

So speed and “always be prepared” are my two packing goals.  If I were to add a third goal to my packing (and honestly, a third goal might be wise), it would be efficiency.  When I say efficiency, I mean streamlining the packing process: making lists, planning ahead, and not wasting time or space.  Usually, I sacrifice efficiency for speed – not because the two are mutually exclusive, but because I’m too lazy to put in the extra effort.  Although it seems pretty obvious that if I were to put the effort in here, I would have a higher success rate of speed and preparedness.  For me, the extra effort would be to create a list, which would take into account length of travel, weather of my destination (should I pack summer or winter clothes?), and mode of travel (am I restricted by airline rules?).  Taking this extra step would still enable packing to happen last minute, but it would streamline the process and would enable a better prepared-ness for the entire trip.  Here’s my packing tip of the day: I would highly recommend making lists.  It’s an easy and quick way to organize.  If you make a list, save it, either on a piece of paper or on the computer, for later trips.  Likewise, if you’re on a trip and find yourself saying “Oh darn it…I wish I had brought [fill in the blank],” write it down and then add it to the list when you return home.  When you do return home and start unpacking, look for items that you didn’t touch on the trip.  Remove those from your packing list if it’s not a necessary item.  That way, the next time you travel, you’ll have a greater likelihood of packing all the right things!

Every year our church takes the youth group on a huge camping trip in July.  We call it the Youth Retreat.  I’ve been going on the Youth Retreat every year now since I was going into 7th grade.  It’s pretty easy camping.  We have access to a bathhouse, we bring several campers and good tents, and we do what we can to make it enjoyable and semi-comfortable.  However, every year I mentally add more to the “I wish I had brought…” list, hoping that the next year I would have finally packed everything I need.  This list has included things like extra sweatshirts, water shoes, plastic bags for wet clothes, plastic bags for dry clothes (so they don’t get wet), extra towels for when everything I own is soaked, a car so that I can keep things dry, etc. (we tend to get wets on these trips…).  So far, the only thing I’ve taken off this list is a deck of cards, because those are also soaked and unusable by the end of the week.        

Well…talking about packing is great and all, but now we come to the big question: what in the world does this have to do with life?  How does any of this translate into my personal, every-day life?

Last month, Kim explained to us that we’re on one big journey called life.  This journey that we’re on is planned and led by God.  He is directing our steps.  We learned that everything comes from Him, even the hard things.  It’s a little surprising, then, to find out that we actually need to “pack,” or prepare, for this journey.  But it’s true, we can’t just expect to do nothing and get through.   

The first thing we need for our life-journey is faith.  It’s like a passport or a driver’s license.  If you try to go somewhere without proper identification, there are immediate consequences that hinder your travels.  There’s a fine just for driving without your license. Faith is the same way in life.  It’s super important.  Without it, we’re not really following a purpose or a path. 

Some of you might be wondering, what does “faith” even mean?  And does faith in anything I feel like count?  This is where the Bible is helpful.  Hebrews 11:1-3 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the people of old received their commendation.  By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”  What are the things hoped for and convictions unseen?  They are the hope of salvation and eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ!  Faith is believing the promises of God.  Faith is believing that the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, lived as a man, was crucified on the cross, and rose again on the third day, all so that I could be saved from my sins.  And the cool thing is, faith is a gift from God.  We just have to ask!  Once we grasp this, once we believe this, all the rest [other packing items] follows. 

Faith, for me, came a fairly young age.  I was about 12 when I first believed that Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sin.  Faith totally changed my outlook on life.  Before it, I was hoping in myself and was relying on my own self-sufficiency to get through life.  I believed that I was invincible.  This belief of mine was disproved every single day...from paper cuts to grades, from lost arguments to poor life choices.  But I still thought that I could take care of myself.  Fortunately, I can stand here and say that it’s amazing to not have to rely on me any more!  It’s not always been easy trusting in God the past several years, but it’s always been worthwhile.  I always know that God is with me through everything, and that He has promised eternal life.  And now I can have hope in something bigger than me!  Living with the hope of eternity puts every day life into perspective.  Knowing that I’m living for something important makes the time I have on earth extra special.    

So after we pack faith, which is a gift from God, there are some other things that we should look to add.  The Bible has two very helpful passages that help us understand what the rest of our life packing list should look like.  The first passage comes from Galatians 5:22-23.  This is commonly referred to as the “Fruit of the Spirit.”  It says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”  Those sounds great!  But how are we supposed to pack them?  They seem like elusive characteristics that can be hard to pin down.  And they certainly are not constant in our day-to-day lives – well, at least not in mine.  If I was practicing patience every moment of everyday, I’m pretty sure my morning road trips into work would not contain so much anger and frustration towards other drivers on the road.  My immediate conclusion for almost every other driver is “obviously that person has no idea how to drive.”  Obviously I should practice patience more often.     

How should I use patience when I drive?  How can we access the Fruit of the Spirit?  Sometimes, time Bible uses the term “put on” when referring to the Fruit of the Spirit.  Colossians 3:12 says, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”  And then in verse 14, it continues, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  Now we’re getting closer to understanding.  “Put on” is an action that we can follow. 

There comes a point where most analogies break down – I think comparing packing for a trip to packing for real life breaks down here.  You see, after all this talk about packing, in life we can’t really pack for ourselves.  We can’t put on the love, just like that.  We can’t chose to “put on” compassionate hearts and humility, like Colossians 3 is commanding.  We are only able to access these things through Christ and His saving grace that comes to us through faith, which, as we found out earlier, is a gift from God.  I wasn’t kidding when I said faith is the most important.  Christ is really the only one who can give us the power to do all of these beautiful things.

Some of you might be saying, well, I have faith, but the rest seems to be missing!  I would say, you’re off to a good start!  But if you have true faith, it means that you have the power to practice things like kindness and humility.  It’s not unattainable.  It doesn’t mean that this is always our default mode (hence the “putting on”).  If we go back to our trip analogy, we don’t use everything we pack all at once. But it is all available to us – it’s all accessible.  In life with faith, this means that you can access, or put-on, the “Fruit of the Spirit” at any time and you can actually choose to pull out a little love or unroll a little gentleness in any situation – you’re not stuck without it.  This is a great kind of power.  Use it!

Others of you might be saying, uh-oh…I don’t even have faith!  Well, I’m so glad we’re talking about it this morning!  If you’re interested, find someone here to connect with and maybe meet a few times over coffee.  It’s totally worth pursuing.  Find people at your table who have true faith – I know they like to talk about it.

Some of you might be like, I totally have this all down.  Next?  Well if that's really true, to you I say, teach me – teach us!  I want to become more of all these things, and I know others wish the same.  Just let me know when I can get coffee with you!

Finally, some of you (like myself) might be somewhere in between.  If I can take us back to packing for a moment…I’m not always a careful or thoughtful or prepared packer…when I was in 9th grade on a missions trip to Cambodia, I was going through security at an airport.  I had forgotten to pack my nail scissors in my checked luggage, so I was trying to carry them on.  As my bag went through the scanning belt, the alert went off signifying that something was wrong.  I was pretty young back then, and I didn’t like being in the spotlight.  But I was pulled aside as my bag was searched, and I think they even did a pat down in front of everyone.  They finally found the scissors and confiscated them.  For some reason, they didn’t have a problem with all the other sharp pointy objects in the nail kit – it was just the scissors.  They gave my bag back to me and sent me on my way.  I had barely held it together until then.  I was terrified and humiliated.  As soon as I started walking down the jet way, I burst into tears.  Fortunately, I was traveling with other people and they consoled me.  But needless to say, I learned my lesson and I’ve since been incredibly careful about how I pack my carry-ons.  I’ve definitely grown in all my packing abilities over the years.  And I think the same thing happens in life.  As you go through experiences, you learn from them.  You learn how to better use the Fruit of the Spirit at all times.  You’re constantly growing and moving in life – it’s not a stagnant experience.  So be encouraged if you’re in between.  There’s always room to grow, but it might be fun to look back once in awhile and see how far you’ve come.   

Whether you haven’t started this life journey yet or if you’re several years down the road, know that Christ is always there, ready and willing to give us faith and the power to access and put on the Fruit of the Spirit.  Just remember – the way you pack will make your trip either super awesome or super not awesome.

Thank you!

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