Travel light

Matthew 10 : 7 - 11

Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts...no bag for your journey

I smile to myself as I read this. I am not a collector of gold or silver items (well, for women, that would be in the form of jewellery!) but I do like bags of different shapes and sizes. I would be more drawn to look into a shop selling bags than I am to walk into a jewellers. (Actually, I am also attracted to bookshops but that's another story). Well, fortunately I can't give in to buying too many bags (and I can only afford the non-branded ones) because I have no place at home to store them (one of the advantages of staying in a fairly small house). I think I am attracted to bags because they are places to 'store' things......things that I might need 'someday'. And often that 'someday' does not come, things collect dust and finally have to be given away after an honest spring cleaning.

Jesus reminds us that as we spread the good news of the kingdom, how we live matters perhaps much more than what we say. We are often so concerned with getting the 'teaching' right but fail to spend the same amount of time reflecting on our lifestyle and the values that come through the way we live. For one thing, the younger generation, especially our children watch and pick up our lifestyle choices. Literally to carry no gold or silver or copper is not possible as we cannot go back to the good old days of barter trade. Nor do we throw away all our bags and carry our belongings in plastic (or rather paper bags for those who are care enough about the environment) bags. But the idea comes through that travelling light is what the good news of the kingdom is all about. And having less gold/silver/copper and fewer bags means we have to spend less time with our own (often superfluous) concerns and therefore can give more time to spreading the good news in the specific way we are called to.

Yes, from time to time, I do take stock of the many things that I accumulate. An honest spring cleaning helps to clear my outer space as it also forces me to take a look at the inner clutter that has caused me in the first place to accumulate the many things. May the Lord be gracious to us as he teaches us the wonderful freedom of travelling light.