Travel light

Today's blog post is by Tara Eastman, the Youth & Family Director at First Lutheran in Jamestown.

[Jesus] told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town...

Just yesterday I returned from Seattle. Today my husband and I leave for Princeton for the 2012 Forums on Youth Ministry. I am intentionally traveling light on these trips. My goal is to take no checked baggage in both a literal and figurative context. Hands, heart, and mind must be free to receive something new. If I'm overloaded with baggage what can I hope to pick up?

As I head off free to what God has waiting, consider taking the next week to also join me in this practice of traveling light. How may you lay down burdens too heavy? How can you make space to discern what God may lead you to take up instead? In the words of Jesus:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

May God guide us to travel light this week, no matter our destination.

Tara Eastman is the Youth & Family Director at First Lutheran Church in Jamestown. She is a contributing writer to Connect, a new curriculum that helps preteens connect individual Bible stories with larger biblical themes, published by Sparkhouse (a division of Augsburg Fortress).