Hey Glen Mar!

I hope you had a great first week of August and are winding down your summertime sojourns while looking forward to fall festivities!

In the same travel spirit that Pastor Lee and I have been riffing on these last couple of weeks, I would love to share a thought from our family vacation to Assateague Island this past weekend.

As you may remember from a sermon a while back, our family regularly goes to Assateague Island National Seashore for either day trips or summer vacation. During this most recent trip, we witnessed a recently born baby horse take its first steps while other wild horses roamed up and down the sandy shores seeking savory snacks from beachgoers’ snack supplies. But before we could witness Assateague’s many natural wonders, we had to fit all of our belongings into the back of the vehicle! If you have traveled with five people, you know just how challenging that can be.

We had duffle bags of clothing, two sleeping bags, a large cooler full of refrigerated items, two boogieboards, three beach chairs, an umbrella, amongst other “needed items,” and enough food and snacks to last us beyond our four-day vacation. And at one point, as I was loading all of this into the cargo section of my SUV, Laura came out, looked inside, and said it was like I was “Playing a game of Tetris.” It felt that way, but I eventually got it all in there, and we were on our way.

But I often wonder if we take too much when we go on vacation. Okay, let me rephrase that because I don’t want to get in trouble with my family; I wonder if I take too much. A case in point for this is that I often take multiple hats because I am a ball cap guy, and I like to have options. What can I say? But what if instead of taking multiple, I just took one? And what if I applied that to the rest of my personal packing? Maybe I wouldn’t have had to play Tetris just to go on vacation, who knows?

I ask this question because I often think that I would be better off with less, but I fight that inclination. I don’t know why, but I do. I think of Jesus, who, when he sent out his disciples to proclaim the Gospel, told them not to acquire gold or silver, copper, a bag, two tunics, or sandals or a staff… but told them to go with less and rely on others (and God) to provide what was needed (Mt. 10:9-10). While I know the context of Jesus sending the twelve disciples out is vastly different from my recent vacation trip, I wonder why this idea of taking less sounds so revolutionary to me?

Maybe instead of spending our time managing our stuff, God invites us to trust Him with what we have. Maybe instead of focusing so much on our things, we focus on the things of God: nature, beauty, the family and friends we have been given, and the love that we can share that doesn’t cost us a thing, but provides so much to others. For some reason, the older I get, the harder it is for me to realize that God invites us to a life that is full…while also freeing us from having so much. A life where no “Tetris” is required.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, we needed a lot of the stuff we had to take, but we also wanted to take a lot of stuff we didn’t need. This included my multiple hats. What if Jesus’ command to take less, to carry less, is a means of unburdening us from the life that isn’t really life, and blessing us with that abundant life that Jesus offers us in John 10:10? What if less really is more? Not just in the spiritual but in the material as well?

I wonder this, and have for many years, and have felt it to be true when I have tried to live it, but so often get tangled up in the “more is more” camp of everyday life too easily.

I guess, rather than giving you an answer…I would just invite you to join me in this pondering, and to pray about what God is calling us to carry and share as we witness to the message of Jesus Christ with our lives in Ellicott City, Assateague, or anywhere else that He would send us.

Let us not be slowed down by what we think we need to take with us on the journey but be unburdened by having what we actually need to witness to God’s good news, beauty, and abundance before us.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Chris