So, does your baggage fly for free?  If you are a Southwest Airlines customer you know what I’m referring to.  While most airlines are charging stiff fees for checked baggage Southwest has differentiated itself in a big way by allowing travelers to check two items of baggage at no cost…free of charge. This has caused me to think lately about the baggage of life and ask this question, “How do we begin to get free from the baggage of life?”  Well a couple of things come to mind. First, if you’ve traveled at all lately you would have experienced the crushing reality that more and more people are choosing to “carry on” their baggage. Isn’t this in many ways what we tend to do with the baggage of life? You know those situations of life, ones that are most often regrettable, that we have experienced that have a way of staying with us throughout our lifetime. The “baggage” that, left unclaimed, most often influences and informs our view of ourselves and can negatively affect even our closest relationships. Doesn’t it seem life just has a way of heaping baggage on us that we carry with us everywhere we go or to every relationship we encounter. Part of the answer certainly lies in being sure to keep our load light by minimizing the number of situations we get into that will “load us up” with baggage.  If we don’t, it just gets heavier over a lifetime.  The real answer though is found in checking our baggage and never having to go to Baggage Claim again? Think about this parallel.  At the outset of many trips I’ve checked my baggage with the curbside baggage handler who in turn sends my baggage on to the airplane which in turn carries my baggage for me for the duration of the flight. This simple step lightens my load and frees me up for awhile. Having arrived at my destination however I then have to go straight to Baggage Claim to retrieve my baggage taking on the weight of the baggage all over again. What if we could hand off our baggage to life’s ultimate “baggage handler” and never have to retrieve our baggage again?  How free would we be and how would this lighten the load of our lives?  There is One who longs to handle and lay claim to all of the baggage from our lives.  One who desires that we journey through life freed up from the bondage of the past so that we can choose to live our future as a captive who’s been set free?  Do you know Him? If not, write me. Just know this. With Him not only does our baggage fly for free…better yet…there is none! Peace.