It’s April and I still haven’t cleaned out my purse from when we had our car accident in January. I took everything out and switched bags but I haven’t cleaned out all the glass in it yet. It’s in most all the pockets and the bottom of the main bag. I really don’t know why I have hesitated on it for so long now. The bag has just been hanging in my laundry room, waiting to be cleaned out and used again.

While this has been in my mind it has also opened up an ongoing thought about why am I still hanging on to this? I’m not wanting to have glass in this bag. I don’t want to get rid of the bag. It’s actually one of my favorite bags and I miss it. So why am I just letting it hang out, full of something that prevents me from using it?

Our life can be like this bag. We can unintentionally collect loose items and fragments that can hinder us from being used to our full potential. It can be multiple different things: bitterness, resentment, anxiety, depression, fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, oppression, failures, discouragement, etc. Life happens and can cause us to carry a lot of baggage that is really not necessary for us to have to carry. We have an option to drop it off at baggage claim but yet we tend to still travel with it. It may not be all through us, but it could just be hidden away tucked in a little pocket. Out of sight; out of mind. We really don’t know why we hesitate for so long about cleaning it out and getting rid of it.

Why do we hang on to it? We don’t want to carry it around. We don’t want this extra weight in our lives but yet we treat ourselves like we are stuck with it. It’s almost as if we become comfortable with being uncomfortable. We wish that things were different yet we don’t change anything. So why are we just hanging on to things that prevent us from being used to our full potential?

Just as I need to empty my bag of glass, we need to empty ourselves of life’s unnecessary fragments.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:1