On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm nine people boarded a twin engine Cessna 402B to travel to an airport in Florida. Something went terribly wrong as the Cessna took off and crashed 200 feet from the runway killing all nine that were aboard. What happened? The pilot was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. After an autopsy was performed it revealed there were traces of cocaine and alcohol in the pilots system. Further investigations determined the plane was over its total gross weight by 700 pounds and was loaded with one more passenger than it was allowed to carry. Overload caused serious damage in this case it cost the lives of 9 people. Too much baggage can cause a plane to crash. It can make a person crash, too. When a person is carrying around a lot of emotional and spiritual baggage, it can really weigh you down and make it very hard for you to fly or reach your destination. The day that you and I are living in, a lot of people are carrying around a lot of baggage. Could that be what's holding a lot of us back and even making us crash sometimes? Maybe we are carrying around baggage like holding a grudge or maybe it’s hard feelings that we are harboring. Could it be resentment that we've allowed to grow instead of letting it go? We may have let the "sun go down on our anger" too many times, and the weight of our bitterness is darkening everything around us. A chip on our shoulder starts out weighing a little, but it ends up weighing a lot. The release of forgiving, of making a new beginning with that person is really the only way you can keep from crashing. It could only take a few words of apology; I’m sorry, will you please forgive me. Are we choosing to carry yesterday's pain into this new today? Paul said it this way
Philippians 3:13 ……. one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It's time to take an honest look at how much baggage we've been carrying around all of which Jesus has said He would carry for us. That baggage has made us negative, stressed, angry, way too sensitive it's weighing us down and it's keeping us from flying. You don't need to be overloaded like this. Unload that baggage before it makes you crash.
1Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Life is too short to be overloaded make life lighter unload that baggage. See you Monday and have a great weekend unload and relax.