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Turning Over a New Leaf : Let Go of the Baggage

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We all carry baggage through life—emotional weights from things we’ve done or things done to us. No matter the source, this baggage slows our journey, making us slaves to it. We feel compelled to pick it up and haul it everywhere, in everything we do.

I understand why we cling to it. For many, that burden defines our identity; without it, who are we? Some adopt a “poor, pitiful me” mindset, like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh—constantly seeking pity from others. Others carry a chip on their shoulder, daring the world to knock it off, always ready for a fight.

Both postures drain immense energy, mentally and emotionally, just to maintain them. There are likely other ways we manifest this baggage, but these two capture the extremes.

Early Experiences

Early in life, I leaned toward the chip-on-the-shoulder style. Deep hurt fueled an “I’ll show you” attitude: I’d work harder, excel faster, strive for perfection, and achieve heights others only dreamed of. In many ways, it served me well—it channeled anger into drive and success. But underneath, it wasn’t healthy. Holding onto grudges against specific people prevented a more balanced life. I might have paused to smell the roses, nurtured relationships instead of sabotaging them to avoid hurt, or allowed vulnerability.

Would I go back and drop that chip entirely? At this stage, probably not—it shaped who I am today. Yet I was profoundly relieved when I finally unpacked the bitterness, anger, and pain from my psyche. Those people had moved on long ago, but I’d kept them neatly packed in my emotional bag. Opening it and pouring everything out was liberating. There was another season when I became more like Eeyore. Life’s trials left me missing out on milestones others enjoyed—a lasting relationship, family, an identity beyond career. It felt like “keeping up with the Joneses,” but circumstances denied me even the chance to try. That self-pity entrenched me in a rut, robbing joy from everyday life.

Finding a path

Eventually, I dumped that baggage too—the pain sustaining it—and moved forward lighter. Do I still carry some? Yes. Is it good for me? No. I work to unpack it piece by piece, aiming for a lighter load so my steps have bounce instead of thud.

As a lifelong Christian, I’ve walked with Jesus, relying on Him. Yet for years, I feared surrendering these burdens fully, even knowing He invites us to cast them on Him. Each time I’ve emptied my bag, it’s been through recognizing God’s grace and Jesus’ daily help in releasing hurts, overcoming anger, and living more abundantly.

I’m not there yet—the big trunks are now an overnight bag. I hope to empty it completely before my journey ends. The load is already so much lighter.

Read more of Randall’s inspiring thoughts in Seeing Faith : A Devotional .

Change is inevitable

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In life, we often see ourselves in a never ending cycle of the same.

We go through the same routine daily. Get up, prepare for the day and off to work.

Then we return and back to house routine until we slow down for sleep.

We do this, day after day, year after year, often just watching our lives fly by as the clock spins upon the wall.

While things in our lives often remain the same, day in and day out, from time to time something happens which jolts us out of our mundane routine.

Sometimes its a pleasant surprise which makes life different. If we are single, we might fall in love.

If we are childless, a child might be in the making.

Or we might be jolted by some unexpected moment that changes our lives – an accident, a fall, an illness, the death of a loved one. Any of these might shake our life.

It might be something simple. For me recently after many years with having the same people live around me. Solid good neighbors upon which I depended upon for decades, now I am seeing a shift as different ones move away. With each a little adjustment is required. Now there are new people to learn, but its unlikely that decades of neighboring will be recovered quickly in these new relationships, but in time perhaps, I will once again feel as comfortable as I did with the others. At least I hope so.

No matter what aspect of our lives we are looking upon, the inevitability of change is always there—new co-workers, new responsibilities, new expectations, new neighbors, new elected officials, new problems, new hopes, new dreams and new losses.

Despite this, we see our lives as routine, but in actuality every day is filled with little differences.

We are provided opportunities for countless choices every single day. Any one choice might be the one that catapults us into a sea of unknown circumstances. We choose the wrong food item at lunch and we get food poisoning. Were off to the hospital and we get an unplanned bill. We miss a few days of work. All this sequence of events hinged on a quick decision while walking through a cafeteria or restaurant food line.

Change is always with us, it is the source of our opportunities. If we are mindful and watch the changes in our surroundings, we might find one coming that opens boundless opportunities for our future.

I am saddened at the recent and coming changes within my circle of neighbors. Hopefully, good folks will fill the voids left by these changes and overtime will become the stalwarts I hope to have around me as we move forward in this uncertainty we see around us.

Be mindful and forward thinking as you go through you daily routines and perhaps, just perhaps, you will be the orchestrator of positive change that impacts us all rather than the dutiful recipient.