So Junk in the Trunk is a catchy phrase so I went with it. But what I really want to share in this post is the baggage we carry. The extra baggage we lug around. So let’s get to it and talk through the Junk in the Trunk of our lives.
Think about going on a trip. You pack everything you actually need. Then you think about the extra things you might need. And as if that’s not enough, you decide to take those extra things you absolutely don’t need, just in case you need them.
Lugging Your Junk
Now you have to lug (thus the word luggage) all of that around to your car, to the airport and check-in, to the hotel room, back to the car, back to the plane, into your car, and then back home. Then if you are like me, you realize you didn’t even use half of what you packed.
I want to take it a step further. Another word we can use for luggage is the baggage we carry. We hide the trash in our lives in a bag. It weighs us down and drags us down and it always turns nasty, even when we pack it to look nice and neat. Let me share a story.
What’s in Your Trunk
A co-worker and I share a similar story. He parked at a hotel in their long-term parking and was gone for two weeks. He returned and went to pay for the parking. The attendant asked him if he had any issues with gnats and flies in his car. He looked at her confused by what she said and responded, “No.”
He went to his car and saw the gnats. So he opened his trunk and found that he had left a bag full of trash in his trunk during the two weeks he was gone. There were maggots, flies, and gnats all over in his car.
I did the same thing but only left the trash in my Jeep for 8 or 9 days. Carmen and I had both been on trips so my Jeep sat for a while. Upon getting in my Jeep I noticed a bad smell and lots of flies. So I jumped out and opened my tailgate to find a bag of nasty, smelly, rotten trash full of maggots, gnats, and flies.
Time To Clean Up
This is where we should get a clue that we need help. This is where we need to know and learn to let God in. We need to trust Him with the junk in the trunk. We carry our garbage around like we’ve accepted it as a part of us. After all, it will go away. But not before it festers out of control. And fester it does. Just like unattended trash, the mess begins to accumulate. Maggots, flies, gnats, smells, and the ripple effects.
When we don’t give it over to God, when we hide the trash in our lives from Him, it gets nasty for us. We are then living in the middle of our own maggots and stench that we created.
As if we could, we try to present ourselves as “cleaned up” before God while pulling all our trash behind us in our luggage.
Psalm 134:1-4; 23-24 AMP
O Lord, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up [my entire life, everything I do];
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue [still unspoken],
Behold, O Lord, You know it all. 23Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
God’s love, His mercy, His Grace, and His forgiveness is deeper, much deeper than the baggage we carry from the trash, the scars, hurts, and pains of our lives. The Newsboys say well with their song Clean…
Challenge of the Week
Time to take the garbage out. Time to come clean. Give it, whatever IT is, over to God. He has made you clean and sees you as perfect, clean, and forgiven because of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for you. He knows you, so you don’t have to pretend to be ‘cleaned up’ with Him and think you can actually hide something from Him. Give yourself to His transforming presence that will change your life. Don’t let another day go by allowing the junk to fester. He will make you clean. So be it!
