Carrying the Bags (Friday Devotional)

“For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

- Ephesians 5:8-9

It is an archetypal story in professional sports, as true for the minor league soccer goalkeeper as for the NFL linebacker. It begins on the initial road trip of an athlete’s rookie season. As he steps off the team bus for the first time, he pauses to soak in the moment, only to have his reverie interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. Turning around, he is confronted by the glare of one of the team’s veterans. “Rookies carry the bags,” the teammate says gruffly.

That instruction is the precursor to a season’s worth of minor, hopefully harmless hazing. Over the course of his rookie year, the young athlete will be expected to pick up the check at team dinners, occasionally pick up a teammate’s dry cleaning, and, yes, carry the luggage on every road trip. By the end of that long season, his rookie obligations have become as much a part of his routine as lifting weights.

So when his second season starts and he steps off the team bus, he naturally descends to the luggage compartment to retrieve his teammates’ bags, just like he did on so many road trips the previous year. But as he starts to pull suitcases out of the compartment, he is interrupted by a familiar tap on the shoulder. When he turns around, it’s the same elder teammate as the year before, but this time smiling instead of glowering. “What are you doing, man?” he asks. “Rookies carry the bags. You’re a veteran now!”

The change in status from darkness to light, from being an unbeliever to a Christian, is like going from being a rookie to a veteran. In both cases, the change takes time and growth. Yet in both cases, when the change happens it is instantaneous—you are either rookie or veteran, unbeliever or believer; there is no murky space in between. And most notably, in both cases, your change in status necessitates changes in your old behavior.

Just as the team veteran in the story found it ridiculous for his teammate to continue exhibiting rookie behavior, you ought to find it equally ridiculous to continue living the way you did before you came to know Christ. Living only for yourself and disregarding the needs of others made sense when you “were darkness.” But now that you “are light”, you are called to live like it, to strive for “all that is good and right and true.”

Like the rookie, you may find yourself drawn by habit into your old behaviors, and may need a gentle reminder about your new role from those who have been in the game longer than you. But as you grow in faith, may you cast aside the old self and embrace your new life in Christ. Your old life may have been loaded down with sinful baggage, but rejoice in this good news: in Christ, it’s not your job to carry it anymore.