Luke 21:34 - The Traps of Daily Life

Luke 21:34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”

There was a life insurance advertisement that ran several years ago showing a very handsome man as a Venetian gondolier rowing a stunning young lady through the canals of Venice. Glancing looks are taken between the two of them and the young lady's heart is all a flutter. They pass under a bridge and the handsome young man is now a decrepit old man. As the girl screams, the slogan “Life Comes At You Fast” showed up and the commercial faded out to be replaced by the next commercial in the line.  Life does come at us fast. Things happen quickly and we have trouble trying to just keep our head above the seemingly rising flood waters.

In areas of Asia and Africa, monkeys are trapped because they are pests. They destroy crops and food that the farmers have painstakingly cared for. They cause damage that the villagers do not want to deal with, as well as monkeys can be eaten as food. To trap these monkeys, they will hollow out a gourd or coconut with a hole just big enough for the monkey to slip their hand in. Inside the hollowed out gourd or coconut is placed a sweet treat of some sort to bait the monkeys, then they will stake the gourd or coconut to the ground or to a tree. When the monkey finds it, they will grab the treat, but the hole is too small to allow their fist to come out. To escape the trap the monkey must let go of the treat!

Life comes at us fast. There are all sorts of things we don't want and we try to avoid them, then there are all sorts of experiences that we have that we would rather forget.  We as people have emotional, physical, and mental baggage that we carry around,trapping us like the desire to maintain our youth, to prepare for the inevitable, to hold on to what we have, and because we fear the unknown.

We all go grocery shopping. And if you are anything like me, you want to get as many of your bags of grocery into the house at one time. What do we do? We figure out how we can carry all the bags, sliding the loops through our arms, grabbing the boxes and balancing whats left on top of the cradle between our arms, while we hold our house key with one or two fingers. Then struggling with the weight of all the groceries and praying that none of the bags break, we stumble our way from our car to our door, where we try to get the key into the lock, but failing that we shift bags around so that we are overburdened on one arm, just to open the door! Then rushing, we try to manage to get to the kitchen before our strength is gone and we lose an item or three (or all).

We treat life like a grocery trip, trying to carry as much at any one time of it as we can. This is not healthy for us! We have all the time in the world, we have all the time in the universe to find and appreciate life!  But we burden ourselves, we trap ourselves and we don't want to let go of anything.  This not-letting-go thing comes between us and God and the freedom that He offers us. Imagine carrying all those bags and trying to get anywhere? Many of us have stood in line trying to get on our plane or bus while somewhere in front of us is someone who will not let go of any of their bags and let them get checked to their destination. They have to carry their shoulder-bag/purse, duty-free bag, book bag, lunch bag, clothes bag, suit bag, etc.  The problem is that we often are trying to do the same thing in life! We carry our bag of pride, our bag of people we don't like, our bag of hurt, anguish, and pain,  of fun, of experiences, of hopes and dreams, of expectations from both ourselves and others, of work, stresses, and duties, as well as a backpack filled with regrets! We are overwhelmed by the bags that we are trying to tug through the door and down the aisle to our seat! We just don't want to let anything go!

God calls on us to let it go, let it all go. He will carry it for us, He will get us to our destination with everything we need. He will carry the groceries so we can stock the fridge and cupboard without worry. He offers to take every single worry, fear, hope, and dream and bear it for us so that we do not have to.  He offers, but are we humble enough to accept? How many times has a neighbor offered to help carry your groceries but you just said “Nah, its okay, I can get it.”? How many times have you said that to anyone who tried to help with anything? “I can do it.” At one point do we think we have it and we grab that one last item that brings everything crashing down?

Life itself traps us with everything we must go through. We pick up baggage as quickly as we pick up stuff after college. Remember when you moved into your college dormroom with just a couple bags? Remember moving out? Then starting with almost nothing in your first apartment and then in just a couple years you were wondering where all that stuff and junk came from? Life fills us with stuff in our life just like that. We pick up these bags effortlessly and without thinking. Our burden just gets heavier and heavier with time until we wonder why things seem so rough going, even though everything looks great.  Will you let things go and let the Lord carry your baggage? Will you let Him deal with it as needed and de-clutter your belongings down to the bare essentials (as He sees it, not you or I)?

God is offering, will you let Him?

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to be more than I can be.

There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.
                                                        Brendan Graham, 2001.