HOW I BECAME MY EXTRA LUGGAGE

 

I was thinking this morning.... On my way back from my long trip recently, I packed my bags, or perhaps “stuffed” is the better word, and headed for the check-in counter. My suitcase landed on the scale: 3kg overweight.

“Sir, you’ll need to reduce the weight or pay $100.”

What! $100 for ordinary 3kg? Haba! I stepped aside and transferred a few items into my carry-on. Problem solved, or so I thought. Back at the counter, my suitcase was now fine, but my carry-on had become 4kg overweight.

“Sir, you can’t take this onboard. You’ll have to check it in for $150 or reduce the weight.”

Chai! From $100 to $150. These people were determined to collect something from me. I stepped aside again, opened both bags and began Operation Reduce Weight. Then I spotted a blazer and a sweater. Eureka!

I wore the blazer over my T-shirt and the sweater over the blazer. Looking like someone travelling from Canada straight to Antarctica, I returned to the scale. 23.7kg.

The attendant looked at me, perhaps with pity, perhaps wondering what kind of fashion statement I was making and said, “I’ll ignore the extra 0.7kg.” Phew!

As I walked towards my gate, something struck me. Overweight checked luggage? No. Overweight carry-on? No. Overweight passenger? Yes!

Laslas, the total weight entering the aircraft had not changed. The blazer and sweater were still travelling. I was still travelling. Nothing had disappeared. The problem was not really the weight. It was where the weight was located.

And perhaps life is sometimes like that. We spend so much energy trying to eliminate every burden when what we really need is to redistribute it. Some responsibilities cannot be thrown away; they simply need to be carried differently. Some loads become manageable when shared. Some problems become lighter when placed in the right hands. As the Bible says in Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens.”

Sometimes, the answer is not less weight. It is better weight distribution. Abeg make I plan to waka today, maybe I can redistribute some of the weight from my belle to other parts of my body.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey