Packed Bags

Her bags were packed.

A new adventure awaited this world traveler. She was ready to go. That is, until her doctor told her she had stage 4 cancer. Within weeks, she was gone. Hauntingly, I was sitting in the church waiting for her funeral to begin on the day she had been scheduled to set sail. I couldn’t help but think she still set sail but this time on a voyage unlike any other - the one each of us will eventually make.

It’s one thing to say we’ll sail beyond the horizons of our lives, and another to live our lives grounded in that truth. We don’t live with our bags packed. We say unnecessary things and don’t say the things that matter. We spend our time and attention on things that will never fit in our bags, things that we’ll need to leave behind. As a famous pastor puts it, our lives are “temporary assignments,” and to see them as such changes our aspirations, relationships, and purposes.

I’ve reached the stage of life when there are more days behind me than ahead. Like my friend, I know there’s a great journey ahead. Remembering that, living in and through that, is bound to change the way I make my way through this temporary journey. The image of my friend’s bags packed sitting by the door is all the inspiration I need for a new year.

She was ready. I want to be ready. I have whatever time left to pack my spiritual bags. I need to prepare to go from one voyage to another, one adventure to another, one life to another.