baggage

This is a little lengthy and a little honest so bear with me. This morning we all went to Church of the Highlands here in Auburn. My cousin Tyler just moved to Auburn (sweet freshman) so he tagged along to try it out. The message was just so amazing. We are doing a series called Baggage. It is all about how everyone has things that they carry around with them that just weigh them down and make the journey through life more difficult. Today's message was about relational baggage(some sort of deep hurt that we suffered and has even come to define us). We read this story in Genesis that is literally 6 verses long. It is Genesis 11:27-28;31-32. "This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth...Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran."
I probably NEVER would have caught the point of this story. Terah's son HARAN died. God must have called him to go to Canaan for him to just pack up his family and go. However, on the way He went through a town called HARAN and he settled there and even died there. He could not get over the death of his son. To get from where he was to where God called him to be he had to get through that baggage. Terah never let go of that and it kept him from God's potential. That is the last time he is mentioned in the Bible. The point of this message was that Relational baggage keeps us from our potential and can also destroy our relationship with God. Every attack of the enemy is to keep you from your purpose. Pastor Chris also talked about how the relational baggage that we carry cant be healed until we release the people involved. Our relationship with people and Christ is inseparable. Jesus said "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39. You have to love God AND love people. This is where it hit me like a brick in my forehead. Do I always love people? Do I forgive others the way that I want God to forgive me? I know the answer to that is a big fat no. There is one person in particular that I just cannot stand to even think about. They did and do things sometimes that just make me so angry I could hit something. Some of the things hurt me emotionally and some of them just make me mad as a fellow Christian. The biggest reason I don't like them is most definitely my relational baggage. I won't go into details but lets just say I cried over this thing and I still get very emotional if I talk about it. So this morning I was forced to ask myself...does this thing with this person keep me from what God wants to do with and through me? The answer could possibly be yes. This person could quite possibly have their own relational baggage because of me. I have no idea. But I am right now revealing the hurt, releasing the people involved, and refocusing on God's plan for my life. Job 11:13-16 says "Put your heart right, reach out to God...then face the world again, firm and courageous. Then all your troubles will fade from your memory, like floods that are past and remembered no more." That is solid right there.