Bag Lady

I remember seeing her sitting against that old abandoned building. The building had been burned, and if you stared hard enough, you'd see that the old lady's clothing matched the black smoky color of the charred wood behind her. She was homeless, an older lady and smudged-looking. The kids on my bus thought she was mean so they called her vicious names; she intrigued me and I thought it was cruel to make fun of her, so I called her “bag lady.” Every day after school I'd see her carrying and shuffling a bunch of bags from one corner to the next, slowly – never making it past a block. Her bags looked heavy. I mean, she must've had every possession she'd ever owned in those bags because she could barely carry them when she walked down the block. They got in her way. They slowed her down. I bet if she got rid of those bags, she would have been able to walk faster, make it to the end of the block and perhaps, cross the street.

There are so many emotional bags that we tend to carry on our heart. We carry bags of unforgiveness, offense, abuse, rejection, isolation, etc. Like that bag lady I saw years ago; when we walk around with bags on our heart, we're weighty, and we tend to view and sometimes live our lives through those bags we carry. Those bags are hindrances that keeps us from experiencing a life of freedom. Unresolved issues carried day after day become resentment, resentment once ingrained in the heart becomes bitterness and bitterness leads to a hardened heart unless you choose to heal. It is not simple or easy and will take sometimes years before we allow the grace of God to penetrate our hearts, but we've got to work at it...

She - lived in anger
hurt, bruised, battered
Her - heart was saturated
swollen, hard
She - carried many bags
they matched the rags her life
had become
He said something to her
They did something to her
She -never forgot it
She -never forgave, until
His love came in, until
she was willing to work, until
she forgave herself, until
she chose to choose, until
she decided to give love, back

"His compassions fail not (they never cease). They are new every morning." Lam. 3:22-23