Have Cheap Luggage, Will Travel

I would like to tell you a story about William Wilberforce. William was a British abolitionist that single-handedly banished the slave trade from the UK through his political work in the House of Commons. He spent his entire life tirelessly focused on making an impact on the world around him by ridding British society of slavery. It consumed his every thought, action, relationships, career… There was not an area of his life that was not affected. Amazing.

Now, I would love to tell you that William lived a life bursting with happiness and fulfillment. That he wrote stomped out a great evil and went on to write tons of bestsellers and give grand speeches to motivate the next generation. Instead he worked his entire life toward one goal that eventually took his health and he died a short three days after his bill to abolish slavery passed. Three days of celebration for a life of work. I wonder if he knew the end of his story if he would have still made that trade off.


But of course slavery is evil and its death is worth fighting for. However, in William’s day it was a common as peanut butter. So, why would a person drive himself to an early grave over such a widespread practice? Here is a quote that might shed some light on the origin of this kind of passion.

“I set out to find happiness and instead I think God has found me…Do you know how inconvenient that is?” -William Wilberforce

His faith compelled him to action despite his desire to pursue comfort or a life of fulfillment. Do we that proclaim to be followers of Christ consider it inconvenient that our souls have been rescued? I imagine instead that we think we have dodged the bullet.

We breathe a sigh of relief and slowly but surely we distance ourselves from the gutter that God first found us in. “Never again” we say and move on to pursue a life of safety, spring break mission trips and lame Christian tracts to fulfill our obligation to our Lord.

Learning about the life of William Wilberforce has made me consider some questions of myself.

* Am I a “real” Christian or am I submitting to the religious mantle laid on me by my parents?
* Has God grabbed my heart where I could not bear to ignore his pleadings to reach the gutter despite how inconvenient it might be to me?
* Would I tirelessly work to abolish evil if I knew a mere three days of celebration waited for me?
* Does my current work for justice for justice’s sake or for the warm fuzzy feelings it creates in me?

Yeah but we are no Martin Luther King or Gandhi you would say. I would counter that the smallest of choices can make more of a difference than you imagine. Choose to take 5 minutes to share the lunch with the homeless man instead of tossing him a couple of bucks. Choose to ask about your co-worker’s life instead of endlessly talking about the weather. Choose to … fill in the blank. You know which choices you are passing up that have the potential of making a difference. Life does not have to be packed to the brim with selfish pursuit.

Here is my point. To us slavery is an easy choice of right and wrong, but our daily lives are not usually that black and white. Life is more like a grey mush that will sucks us into complacency like quicksand…if we choose to let it.

William Wilberforce is absolutely inspiring. His pursuit of God was so real that it inconveniently molded his choices. A champion for justice because he believed in something bigger than himself. We all love to chase the next hero and beg for someone to inspire us out of our boredom. The first place to look is in the man in mirror.

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:13-14, Proverbs 14:12
Ask: Have you ever been faced with a decision that some people would question your intelligence about?

Read: Genesis 9:6-22
Ask: We all know the children’s story of Noah and the ark, however, if God told you today to build an ark in your back yard would you do it? Why or why not?


Read: Isaiah 45:19
Ask: One of our favorite excuses for action is to say that we are not sure if we are hearing from the Lord. What does this verse have to say about that? How will this verse affect future decisions for you?

“Girls should always get married early because as you get older you just don’t need guys. You can pay your own bills, run your lives. Even spiritually you don’t need us. Why would you need to get married at your age?”

A friend of mine was explaining to me his thoughts about relationships and I was so shocked at how wrong he was that I didn’t initially respond fully to his comment.

However, it did prompt some questions for me. Where did he pick up that message? I find it highly unlikely that he came to this conclusion on his own. Is it possible as women, are we the teachers of lessons that keep us isolated and alone? Do we build up impenetrable walls and then sit around complaining why nobody wants to get to know us? I am afraid to honestly answer those questions…


I guess that I think if guys knew what they were getting into with me that they would run for the hills. As a girl with deep seated Daddy issues, I’ve been chasing the elusive feeling of being loved completely by a man since I was young and using relationships as a substitute. Usually they crumble slowly under the strain of having to support a lifetime of baggage. Unconsciously I see the end of relationship roads and think that it’s too much pressure for one person to bear. That is definitely one of the many reasons why I put myself in a position of not needing guys, romantic or otherwise.

As I contemplate my singleness and the role that I allow men to play in my life, my current circle of friends comes to mind. This circle includes several amazing Godly men that have shown me on a daily basis how much I need them. They bust through my pre-established walls of many years by engaging me in real conversations about life, my walk with the Lord and everything else in between. What is interesting about that, is that they get to see the real me and don’t run for the hills.

Being raised in a hyper-religious environment has not helped either as I was raised with the message that being friends with guys is dangerous. Too much temptation I was told. I now realize how silly that is. My guy friends provide a real life example of Godly men so counterfeit men are that much more obvious to me.

And isn’t that what Christ described as true community? Men and women living life together and filling each other’s needs.

These questions are too important to ignore. We need to look inside ourselves for the walls and the preconceived notions that are keeping us from living in true community that God wants for us.


Read: Acts 4:32-37
Ask: Does this sound like the community that you have in your life? If not, what are you doing to encourage that?

Read: Galatians 6:2
Ask: What are you doing to uncover and bear the burdens of those around you?

Read: Ephesians 4:25
Ask: Are you being honest with your community about what is really going on with you?

We live in a culture where we have the opportunity to choose almost anything we want. Job, mate, religion. The list is endless and yet the large majority of the world lives out their lives in choiceless days. So considering this privilege of choice we have, how do we treat it?

A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking about this as she told me her story. After graduating high school young, she jumped into studying psychology right away and the reality of human nature saddened her to the point where she dropped out of school. Her soul has been recovering ever since. Facing the naked truth that humans are disgusting in the very core of us was too much for her. Despite the fact that she is a beautiful, bubbly and extremely intelligent young woman, she has limited her interaction with life as to not be disappointed by human relationships. There is so much evil in the world why try, she would tell you.


My family and I took a trip to the zoo after this conversation and I decided to take the day to field test her theory. We took the DART from Plano to the zoo and my friend’s words clung to my thoughts like a parasite slowly killing the idea that she was wrong. A man sat next us that could have been my grandpa. His nails long and overgrown. His satin red jacket promoted a women’s bingo group and he smelled less than appealing. His life was held beside him in a ratty backpack. The sight of him prompted sadness and yet his eyes held a softness and intelligence that made me curious about his story. How are you here? Why would someone let this happen to you?

The DART train passed several open fields south of downtown Dallas and you could see makeshift tents made out of sheets or pallets of worn blankets tucked into corners of fences. Men and women, just like the man in the bingo jacket, living out their lives ignored and abandoned in trash heaps. Were they somebody’s mom or dad? How could so many people be just forgotten?

When we arrived at the zoo, ridiculous children and their equally misbehaving parents helped reinforce the idea that kindness and the general public has not ever met. Perhaps my friend was right. I listlessly wandered through the zoo becoming more depressed with each step until I reached the elephants and the world softened around me.

I have now idea why I was so enraptured with this elephant but it was like I was discovering it for the first time. The deep wrinkles in its skin, the squishiness of its padded feet, the smallness of the fingers at the end of its trunk. It moved as if time didn’t matter, engaging the world as it felt like it. The beauty of the moment was overwhelming. After that my steps were much lighter.

Here is my point. That elephant didn’t do anything about the homeless problem in Dallas or stomp out any of the kids banging their heads in the glass in the amphibian house, but it showed me that beauty is all around us. I guess what it comes down to, is that we have to choose to see it and carry it with us to the places in the world that need help seeing it.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
Ask: When you think about sadness in the world, how to you think this verse tells us to interact with it?

Read: Hebrews 10:24-25
Ask: How do you think you could encourage someone to find beauty?

Read: Romans 12:1-2
Ask: Do you think your habits bring beauty into other’s lives?

For almost 40 years of her 87 year long life, Mother Teresa struggled secretly with spiritual darkness and only after her death did this come to light via a book of her letters entitled, Come Be My Light.

One passage written in 1979 reads, "The silence is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves in prayer but does not speak."
When this news came out, there was of course a big uproar. Apparently the world’s most well known Christian had trouble with her faith and every cynic within earshot smelled blood.

There will always be those people trying to poke holes in the validity of our faith by attacking people like Mother Theresa and I just don’t care. In fact, I love that we found out about her secret struggle. It makes me feel normal. And on top of that, who said that becoming a Christian means that you loose the right to question?

Unfortunately, that unspoken but generally understood rule in the church has caused many people to weep in dark corners and face Sunday morning with a plastic smile. It is a lie that sucks the life out believers that just need to hear somebody say, “I understand.”

Doubt should be thrust out into the light of day to be examined, discussed and prodded from every angle. It puts us on a path that helps us own our beliefs and brings us closer as people. Doubt is beautiful.

I in no way want to presume that I have the answer to Mother Teresa’s spiritual uncertainty, but I wonder if the story might have been different if her superiors had encouraged her to share with the world her inner battle.

I pray that we always respectfully question what we do not understand, never shun those that do and find opportunities to say “I understand.”

Read:James 1:6
Ask: The original Greek meaning of the word doubt in this verse means “to be at variance between one’s self”. Do think this verse says not to question at all or to question with a foundation of faith?

Read: Mark 9:24
Ask: Is it possible to believe in something but still need convincing?

Read: Hebrews 3:12-15
Ask: What is the difference between doubt and unbelief?