@RhondaRhea

How is it for any given trip, I can over-pack and under-pack at the same time? How?

It’s so weird when I arrive at a destination and open up my suitcase. Thirty-eight scarves for a three-day event. But no toothpaste. Two sleeves of snack crackers? And that running shoe. I guess I thought it would be funny to pretend I might go running. But how did I think I could even pretend with just one? Then there’s the dog’s stuffed ducky. Okay, that one probably wasn’t me. Still I’d never be surprised to open up my bag and hear myself saying things like, “What’s this Roomba doing in here? I don’t even have one of those. Where’s my hairbrush?”

I’m packing today. I’ll be gone for two days and I’m having to sit on this suitcase to close it. This giant, giant suitcase.

So many details go into travel plans. Ninety-eight percent of my brain space is occupied with the zillion other travel particulars that don’t include the suitcase. One percent goes to the packing. If there’s a percent left over it’s probably thinking about a burrito.

Burrito or no, there’s a curious peace of mind that comes with feeling you’ve packed everything you could possibly need. I think I could experience that peace of mind more often if I appropriated a larger percentage of my brain in the packing process.

Have you ever noticed the peace theme that runs all through scripture? It’s packed in there, as it were, from beginning to end. There was peace on earth before the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. At mankind’s choice to sin, peace was interrupted. But when the angels announced the birth of Jesus, their message was “peace on earth to people he favors!” (Luke 2:14, CSB). Not just peace of mind, peace of world!At the cross, Christ Himself became our peace. “For he is our peace…He came and proclaimed the good news of peace,” (Ephesians 2:14, 17, CSB).

And now today, because of the redemptive work of Jesus, we can have peace that reaches all the way to the heart. The indwelling presence of Jesus offers peace from the inside. It takes away our need to stew or worry. No need to wait for the other running shoe to drop. Jesus said, “My peace I give to you,” (John 14:27, CSB).

Our future? Peace! Jesus will come again. He’s coming in His role as “Prince of Peace,” (Isaiah 9:6). We’ll have eternity with Him, a perfect, forever peace.

Past, present and future—peace! What a privilege we have while we’re here. We get to pass it on. In Matthew 5:9 Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called sons of God,” (CSB). Sin is still in operation in this world, upsetting peace for so many. But for us as Christ-followers, the role of peacemaker is a great honor. We get to represent God’s Gospel of peace to the world—to pack it up and take it to every place on the planet that will receive it.

I want to dedicate more brain space to appreciating and appropriating real peace. Lugging around baggage of unnecessary worry seems silly when I contemplate all God has done to bring peace.

I’m still working on necessary versus unnecessary baggage of the physical kind. My last trip, I discovered I packed a half-eaten burrito in the right pocket of my carry-on. I don’t know what I was thinking. Because shouldn’t I also have packed an emergency-back-up half-eaten burrito in the left pocket?

Rhonda Rhea is a TV personality for Christian Television Network and a humor columnist for great magazines such as HomeLife, Leading Hearts, The Pathway and many more. She is the author of 12 books, including Fix-Her-Upper, co-authored with Beth Duewel, and a hilarious novel, Turtles in the Road, co-authored with her daughter, Kaley Rhea. Rhonda and Kaley are also excited to be teaming up with Bridges TV host, Monica Schmelter, for a new book and TV series titled, Messy to Meaningful—Lessons from the Junk Drawer. Rhonda enjoys speaking at conferences and events from coast to coast and serves as a consultant on the publishing team of Bold Vision Books.

She lives near St. Louis with her pastor/hubs and has five grown children.