Travel light through life!
In Jesus’ time, there were about four entrances to the city of Jerusalem. There was a main gate that was wide and always filled with people travelling with goods and on camels. The gate knew a lot of traffic. It would take forever for people to get into Jerusalem through that wide gate because of what they were carrying. But other gates are small and can only permit the passage of those who have little or no luggage. People got into Jerusalem faster if they had little or nothing on them. But few people went to the city with only a few items. Despite the traffic and long waits at the wide gate, many people still took it because they had a lot with them. But the narrow gates had quite a few people who took it because they had to have close to nothing to be able to pass through.
You can now understand the context of Jesus’s message: if you travel light with fewer loads, you will get to your destination with God faster than carrying too many things on your shoulders. When our hearts are filled with numerous ambitions, thirst for power and control, preoccupations, unrealistic expectations, greed, accumulations, lustful desires, envy, hate, worries, regrets, and guilt, we become heavily burdened with stress, which in turn steals our inner peace and peace with God. But if we travel light, if our relationship with God becomes the center of our lives, then every other thing will lose its hold on our hearts. Unless we begin to see and relate to things and persons from the perspective of God and eternity, things and persons will own our hearts. The result is a burdened heart that has no peace. That is why Jesus came to set us free so we can travel light through life. He makes it clear that if the son sets us free, we shall be free indeed (John 8:36). When we experience the freedom our Lord offers, then the peace of the Kingdom that Jesus promised us will be ours. May this experience be yours today and always. Amen