I remember the day a I heard a speaker share this quote from Maya Angelou:
“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
I've heard a lot of quotes over my life but this one stuck with me. I had never considered it before, that it mattered so much how someone handles something difficult. I suppose it's because I wanted to be judged on my best day and not my worst. I was sure the nice show I put on for the world on a sunny day when everything was going my way was the sum total of who I was and the most important part. But then, I was a young 20-something when I heard this quote with a rose-colored vision of reality. But still, it seemed like good advice, and I remembered it. I'm a pretty optimistic person so I can find the blessing in a rainy day and curl up with a book or a movie or head right out and dance or jump in the puddles. I see tangled Christmas tree lights as good old fashioned puzzle and enjoy the challenge. I sized myself up and thought I must be a pretty good person. I haven't ever lost my luggage but I don't care much for clothes or material things, if I'm already on vacation I'm sure I wouldn't be bothered by that at all. I was quite pleased with my self-assessment of myself. And then... I lost my luggage. A bunch of times.
A week long trip to Texas for work and my boss convinced me to check my luggage, "it's easier" he said. If you've ever lost your luggage you know the feeling, you watch the conveyor belt growing more and more anxious with each passing bag, soon you're sure you're seeing the same ones go by. And then the belt stops and you know. But you search around the area anyway, and then the feeling of despair. My THINGS! I needed those! I have a business conference and I can't go in these sweatpants and tennis shoes I'm wearing! My makeup! My hair products! My swimsuit so I can relax in the hotel pool! My THINGS!
Until this point I've been my "Minnesota-nice" self and have been allowing others to go first, saying excuse me, smiling at the cute elderly couple or the young family or the stranger who seems like they're having a bad day. Suddenly I care little about anyone else in the entire airport and only about retrieving back my things, my control, my plan for how this week was going to go. I learn the "drill" of making the report of missing luggage, get handed a nice little bag from the airline with a tshirt and a toothbrush and sent on my way. (Side bar: Dear Airline marketing department, don't put your logo on these tshirts next time. It's like a walking billboard that says "I'm wearing this tshirt because this airline lost my luggage. Choose to fly with someone else!" Every time I see it in my house it reminds me of the terrible experience and in case I forgot which airline... oh there, your name is right there on the tshirt so I won't forget.) Back on topic. I head back to the hotel and mope and worry. The airline doesn't even know where our luggage is or when we could, if ever, get it back. Multiple phone calls from the airport over the next two days and I couldn't enjoy or be very present at my trip until we finally got it back. The anxiety over this lost $50 worth of clothes consumed me.
I have actually lost my luggage quite a few more times after this experience. I'm hardly a world traveler, just have terrible luck to the point that I will do pretty much anything to not have to check my luggage anymore. Pack for 7 days in a carry-on? You bet I can!
Anyway, I wish I could say I responded better the next time this happened but that would be a lie. It might have gotten worse each time because then I start to get the "why me's!?!" and can whine to everyone I meet because things always go wrong for me and the airline always looses my luggage! Waa waa....I mean, I know at least once I just broke down and cried about it. Another time I was so rude to the airline personnel, and at least once I remember sitting under an umbrella on a beach on a tropical island with a Mai Tai in front of me, everyone else is having a great time and I'm just stressed and angry about my lost luggage.
You can sure tell a lot about me now right? Didn't quite stack up to that great person I thought I was when I was faced with losing my things, plans being changed. Didn't prioritize being kind, caring for others, never even crossed my mind to find the silver lining. So this is me.
Obviously it wouldn't be fair to judge our whole total self and life on how we react to stressful situations like losing our luggage. You can be a great person 90 percent of the time, none of us our perfect. But I do think it helps us to look at the way we respond to those things to see our sin, the room we have to improve. Turns out I thought material things didn't matter to me because I'm not a shopper but I saw quickly I am too attached to "my" own things and my money as I didn't want to pay to replace them either. I thought I was compassionate and put others first and I realized when life wasn't going my way I really only thought about myself.
Here's the grand point you've read so far to get to. I've been thinking all along that 2020 was the year America lost her luggage. We were cruising along, feeling like a pretty great country, who looked out for others, cared about people, met challenges head on and stood strong through them, and then last March....we lost our luggage. I think what was in the luggage was different for everyone. I think for some it is the fear of losing their own life, and for others its the fear of losing someone they love. I think for some it was the loss of normal living, common sense, life as we know it, truth, security, the list goes on. There are probably a million other things we could insert in here. But you know it, when you look around. Not everyone has responded this way, but as a whole country, I think it's safe to say that pretty much overnight we quit caring about people and we saw just how selfish we are. Ministries that have served people for decades closed their doors. Services for our disabled adults and children disappeared and many still are not being offered. Vulnerable children? No time to think about them when we're trying to protect ourselves. Are there a lot of people out there who did a bunch of super-star things over the last year to reach out to others? Absolutely. There are some people who really shine when luggage is lost. But are there a vast majority of us that have gotten to see just how selfish we are? Yes.
Did you know children in foster care didn't get to have visits with their birth parents for MONTHS during the pandemic last spring? You probably didn't, and you probably do care, but we're all so worried about other things you won't notice that. Did you know every person from my friends' AA/NA class relapsed during the pandemic because of their loss of jobs and support? No one rarely wants to talk about the opiod crisis but we definitely are pretending that's not a thing right now. Did you know that children who are developmentally disabled or delayed under the age of 3 have not received anything other than "zoom" visits from providers since the pandemic started last year? We say they'll be fine, but its just the most important developmental years they never get back. Did you know Unicef estimates "an additional 6.7 million children under the age of five are in danger of starving because of the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic? No, we can't possibly care about or do anything about that when we are unsure what the future holds for our own family now. And then, there are all those severed friendships, relationships of people we love, but the pandemic exposed a deep disagreement and it's caused the relationship to fall apart.
As a community, when we had a sunny day, when things were going well, we put all these things in place to care for the vulnerable members of our society. All these rules and laws and ministries to look out for people, to help them, to give them what they need so they can have the best chance possible to succeed. When things are going well, we are a good friend, a good person. But then, we lost our luggage. And we didn't care anymore. And no one else cared either. And everyone's still getting paid so doesn't really matter how hard we try right? And people are just going to be mad so we just have to let them go their own way right?
This is negative guys, and I know, trust me I know the world is FULL of amazing people who are doing a great job looking out for others. But some of us, especially me, could do a little examining of our hearts. We are good people here in America, I still believe that. But we aren't handling this well at all and it should tell us something important about ourselves that we need to address. This is why God has brought us to this moment in time, I believe. Why are we so worried about what's in that suitcase? Don't we know we don't really need anything in there? The things we hold so dear, our plans, our goals, our dreams, our reputation, the people we love, our life, the lives of our children even, they will all pass away. None of it is lasting and no amount of holding it close to us will give us any more control over how long we get to keep any of it. But worrying about it will steal away everything from us. Can we stop for a second and look up and see there is a beach and sunshine here? If we could just let go of that baggage we're so obsessed with, maybe we could see the people and blessings He's putting right in front of us. Maybe that airport clerk or that disagreeable person in your office need you to see that they're having a bad day and bring them the hope they cannot find. Maybe that elderly neighbor needs your visit more than they need to be "safe". Maybe our children need to be prioritized again, because a nation that prioritizes her children will have a bright future. Maybe there is beauty here, in the hot, stinky airport even. I mean, now that your hands are empty, you could hold the door for that cute elderly couple or carry a bag for that family with their hands full. Now that you don't have any luggage to worry about you could walk to the hotel and enjoy the sunshine, maybe not even go up to the room, just head straight to the beach, kick off your shoes and go barefoot. Maybe luggage is over-rated. Maybe you don't need that luggage after all.
Thank you Jesus, for letting us lose our luggage and exposing our great room for improvement. Help us to let it all go, and start doing what's right, not what the world says is right, but what we know in our hearts is right. Help us find the truth. That the joy is not in the luggage. The joy is in the journey. And all that really matters is that the journey leads us to You.
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