Carry On Luggage
Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you. Isaiah 46:4 NASB
Bear – Who carries your bags? The Hebrew sabal is the verb “to bear, to transport,” but it is also the root of the word for porter. You probably don’t think of YHVH as the one who moves all your baggage from one place to another as you travel the road of life, but that’s what He claims to do. “Even when you are old, I will still act as your porter.” When we think of God carrying our burdens, we often convert the imagery to spiritual dimensions. He carries away our sins. He transports us to heaven. But porters are involved in the mundane. Just picking up the bags from the taxi to the check-in counter. Just collecting the luggage from the carrousel. Just holding the umbrella so we don’t get wet. Ordinary. Insignificant. Without much fanfare, they simply make life easier. What if God does the same? What if all that routine, mundane, aggravating trivial weight of just living could be put in the Porter’s hands? Would you allow God to carry you?
Being a porter is not a glamorous job. No paparazzi take photographs of the porters. No one asks them what they think about the celebrities they serve. No one even notices what they do. They just make the lives of others easier. Imagine God in that role. Don’t immediately assign Him the “big” bags, like salvation, destiny and eternal glory. Imagine Him at work in your tiresome living. See if you can spot Him lifting a few bags that you have trouble carrying. Notice when a burden seems a bit lighter. Do you suppose that happens because you drank Red Bull? Or was it that God got involved when you weren’t looking?
Today I started out feeling overwhelmed. It wasn’t specific. Just the weight of all that ordinary, has-to-be-done stuff. Paperwork, taxes, accounting, mowing, clean up, weeds, mail, dishes, ironing, tickets, cancellations, tire pressure, packing—all the “junk” we have to put up with. All those bags to carry. I collapsed on the floor and thought, “When will this ever end, Lord?” I’m tired. Tired of all of it. Tired of the day-at-a-time do-over stuff. I remember Albert King’s great line, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” Sometimes I’m not so sure.
So I did what I always do. Work. Without really noticing, the overwhelming went away. It didn’t go away because I worked at it. I just did the few things that I could. All the rest was still there. But somehow the burden lifted. The weight of it all shifted. “The inner psychological meaning of ‘carrying luggage’ depends on one’s perspective. One can view the suitcase as an efficient way of organizing one’s belongings while traveling or as ‘baggage’—a source of suffering, a burden that weights one down.”[1]
Topical Index: baggage, porter, sabal, Isaiah 46:4
[1] Rabbi Mordechain Dinerman, Rabbi Yanki Tauber, David Pelcovitz, How Happiness Thinks (Jewish Learning Institute, 2014), p. 77.
Shalom everyone what a good way to prepare the Sabbath being involved with the concerns of others while the Lord of all takes care of ours. First thing I thought was if there was there was snow the walkway was cleared even ice melt put down way ahead of time so everything was cleared and almost to the point of dry safety was the course of the day. The concern of others first even in the Long Haul. I noticed that you did not use the word baggage you used luggage the necessary things for the Journey. On the flight is carry-on luggage the things you will need day today the necessaries everyday life reading glasses the special book phone numbers right down to the slippers for your feet everything is taken care a head of time even to the lint off your dress or jacket. Could we go as limo pulled up to the end of the ramp waiting for you need I go on?
PS note every one of these things ahead of time are prepared so that we can think clearly and not be so worried about what is ahead of us .( we can also overlock out wrinkles and gray hair and balding scalp our cane is also ready ?
Purpose determines reality. If I purpose to move my whole body, my brain will fire the nerves moving my gluteous maximus and core muscles and so lift my leg. If I determine to just get my toe over one inch, only little muscles will fire and the rest of my body will remain immovable. When I purpose to do the will (purpose) of my Father, the big muscles fire in the yoke I am supposed to be in. All that is required of me is to line up with that, which is a matter of getting my own will focused on His.
Bro Brett said it for me: “the concern of others first”. Try to notice how many supposedly ‘essential’ actions you could have left lying on the floor if you had put others first, instead of your own mental list of what would make you ‘happy’. I also find it is a lot easier to fix breakfast for me if I have done the actions of caring about the breakfast of others, too. Funny how that is.
Okay sister Hayes when we confirm each other in alignment with the Lord the anointing breaks the yoke you mentioned yoke the Lord says take upon my yoke for it is easy and it is light and it is not to be a burden for you his yoke is his instructions his Torah his Commandments they never change they are Everlasting to Everlasting for HE IS Torah and the word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled Among Us and we beheld or saw his glory full of righteousness and Truth this day and age this revelation is so important freedom to serve the Living God in this country.
We’ve all been there.
This “life” has a way of beating us down. Yeshua points out how easily
the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches can choke out the
vitality and truth of His Word.
He’s dead right; and I’m so dead wrong to fall for it.
So as you said, Skip, get on with real life — the new life He’s given us
in our faith in Christ where loving others like ourselves corrects the errors.
His Word is so right . . . His burden IS light!
Truth in point. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke off the word, that was sewn. The word has been sown for all to hear the word of Truth and His of righteousness.
Very true and VERY needed message and reminder.
End of last year, all my efforts of 18 months collapsed.
As a result, I ended not on the floor but in the gutter.
For some reason, not of my own or others doing, I was able to get up and start working again.
Today received confirmation that almost all my proposals of last year has been accepted.
Time to worship!
Great testimony Pieter we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the power of( Our )Testimony
Pieter,
The storms in my first professional career where constant and unrelenting.
Half way through, the good Lord revealed Himself to me. Because I was slow
on the uptake, He graciously and amazingly orchestrated realities I never knew
were possible.
I now know that’s how He operates, His love for His believing and obedient
children is always more than our love for Him. And I have countless times and
reasons to thank Him for being who He is!
Is this not more about us doing the obvious, doing what we can, and when we really do not know what next, God blesses our efforts…
Not forgiving and doing as long as we live. Yeshua said what we sow we will reap.
Just as Pieter explained. Sometimes we are so entrapped with our bitterness that we do not recognize the blessings when they are manifested.
A friend of mine once phrased it … God is such a gentleman, he always seems to be opening doors when we were convinced they were locked…
It seems that you have read my mind/heart as of late. The same drudgery of life has been heavy on me. The knowledge that changing what I do each day does not change the drudgery of it all. Changing my perspective is what makes it all worth doing every day. Thank you Skip for being transparent so I can be encouraged to know I am not alone in my struggles.
My first thought in reading this was my past reaction to a derogatory slam by some pagan journalist of the Christian “god of parking spaces”. Yes the great Porter in the sky provides parking spaces at just the right time. He actually provides all good things all the time. The real question is are we actually paying attention. My personal struggle with this (and I believe one common to all the faithful) are referenced in a poem I wrote on Shabbat a year or so ago, I encountered the Swan while on a drive it reminded me to focus my attention on “walking in the realms of wonder”. This is much of the challenge to engage with true life rather than mere existence. It can be found here…
Link Removed
Boy can I identify with your feelings here Skip. We all have our luggage and I imagine it all looks a little different. What is luggage to one is trivial to another and so on.
Again we all have choices. There is that old question about how does one eat an elephant. Answer-one bite at a time! Life is a lot just like that.
Doesn’t the Master say not to worry about the future because today has enough of its own troubles? Seriously great advice we need to give heed to in my opinion!
Hey Chip. I really enjoy your notations and find them very helpful. Just a quick question, I’m looking the Hebrew text of Isa 46:4, and I must be missing something because my text shows that in the phrase “your graying years I will bear you”, actually has the Hebrew word sabal,for the English word “bear”; while in the next phrase “I have done it I will carry you”, the word “carry” here is the Hebrew word נָשָׂא. The commentary still works, just not sure I’m reading the Hebrew text right. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for this. You’re right. I should have highlighted the word in English “bear” not “carry,” which as you pointed out is nasa. I have corrected the highlight. My mistake.
By the way, it’s SKIP, not Chip, but I know who you meant.