Room for Baggage - Lent 2020
In the world, you will have tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world!
John 16:33
When Bob and I became sober in 2011, I thought, because we surrendered our lives to God, he would take all our desires to do drugs and drink away completely. I thought we were automatically healed from all our past hurts. Now that we were on God's team, every day would be a win! We could leave all our baggage behind.
Mature Christians know it doesn't work that way. We were not mature Christians.
We were blessed to become a part of the family of missionaries at Lutheran Indian Ministries and Haskell LIGHT, with all the support and love that comes with being a part of a family. My parents and grandparents were a huge help, and for a while, things were really great. But we still had problems... problems with finances, ex-partners, parenting small children, and our own marriage.
I was shocked! How could this be? Shouldn't everything be sunshine and rainbows? Are we really even saved? We continued to mess up. We relapsed. Being saved hadn't saved us from our addictions.
A one-time prayer is not a "fix-all" for a broken life. John 16:33 says, "In the world, you will have tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world!" Jesus overcame the world; we have not. What we do have now is the grace and love of our Heavenly Father and the certainty of eternal life because Jesus already did the hard work.
On the Haskell Campus, we work with students, Natives from the community and their families, and staff at Haskell, and nearly everyone has baggage. Our ministry work would be much easier if we could lead everyone in a single prayer that would magically cure all their hurts and history, but instead, we work every day to slowly help them address their history and move past it with the help of Christ. We don't ignore their baggage, we help them carry it to our final destination.
Loving Father, we thank you for the trials and tribulations of this life that bring us closer to you. Help us to have patience in the healing process, knowing we have an eternal life waiting for us, free of tears, sorrow, death, and pain. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.