Inheriting Baggage 3

We have looked at inherited baggage.

We have also looked at how we can get ourselves out of that heritage.

I want us to look at how we will avoid staining our legacy with new baggage.

And I am sure after reading the past two posts on this you may already be in the know about some of the things you require to do it.

You see, if I know what brought baggage to my inheritance, I will be a fool not to know that doing the same or similar will mean that my posterity will also inherit baggage, my baggage.

And if I know how to get rid of the baggage I have inherited, I also will know enough to insulate posterity from inheriting baggage.

In short, once I have understood the dynamics of inherited baggage, I will be well positioned to avoid doing the same for my posterity.

So many words saying a simple thing.

But it is not that simple, or easy.

That because baggage does not come packaged thus.

Many times, it is packaged as an irresistible opportunity.

Many times, it is packaged as a lifetime achievement.

And many times, it is packaged as the ultimate partnership.

It is therefore important to isolate the packaging from the package to be able to soberly assess the irresistibility of poison.

Do you know how much alcohol uses on advertisement?

Do you know how many sponsorships it offers to get some visibility?

And why do they spend so much?

Because what they sell is impossible to sell using logic.

You can’t tell someone to sample alcohol by showing him where alcoholism will get him to.

But by using blitz and glitter, it is possible to tempt them to sample because the present has become all consuming.

And you may also realise that they target the youth without many responsibilities, some who are living on their parents’ resources, meaning the cost element of the ‘pastime’ is almost zero initially.

And they do that with a long-term knowledge that once someone gets hooked, they will forego food to get drunk.

Again, look at betting, the modern crave more addictive and dangerous than drugs.

I have never heard someone saying that they experienced a string of flops when they were starting.

Many times, that first bet gave a very handsome reward because they know that once you get hooked, nothing else will matter. You could even sell the house you are living in to place that bet.

What am I saying?

Baggage does not sell itself as thus.

Let me say two main things that open us to baggage.

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12:15)

Greed is the first one.

And it is dangerous because it guides us to take shortcuts and take advantage of people and situations, opening us to judgment (baggage).

It is the capitalistic spirit that wants to reap the most from the least exertion.

It is the tendency to value people according to what we can get from them.

And it makes it impossible for us to minister because self interest is contrary to genuine ministry because genuine ministry says spend without expecting any returns.

The second is closely tied to it. And it is the pursuit of pleasure.

Its problem is that it blurs boundaries relating to sin and relationships.

You see, pleasure focuses me only on me. everybody and everything else exists for my enjoyment.

Those two vices thrive in the taking advantage of others for my benefit and using others for my pursuits, the two things that will bring baggage to anybody.

And this because their pursuit will always leave bleeding hearts.

Allow me to illustrate.

Imagine being in charge of a bursary program and skewing it allocations to friends and relatives.

That in effect means that the intended beneficiaries will lose out.

And since its purpose is to support those without resources to facilitate their education, you are in effect locking out the intended recipients, effectively also locking out other opportunities that education was meant to open them to.

Once in a while we get to hear of someone who qualified to join medical school (and in our country it is akin to the needle’s eye) and has had to do nondescript jobs to sustain himself because they couldn’t afford the barest to get the loan.

They are discovered over ten years later, still yearning to join medical school yet surrendered to fate.

All the time when there are enough scholarship and bursary awards that have been going to the rich who are close to those awarding offices.

Do you think the prayers of those people you defrauded will afford you peace?

You are in effect creating a baggage empire for your posterity.

Or you think God created all the women for your pleasure and so are sampling them as a connoisseur without a care in the world.

Think of the families you are breaking. Think of the futures you are wrecking as you play with those university beauties. Think of the children who are confused as they do not know who between the present father and resource pouring father to hold on to. Think of the illegitimate children you are spreading everywhere.

Do you think there is any safety in your pride? Do you think your children are safe?

The truth of the matter is that your posterity will inherit all that baggage.

Remember Gehazi whose pursuit of that low hanging fruit of Naaman’s free offer that his boss had adamantly refused opened his generations to leprosy?

Or Joab whose ambition and retaliatory justice opened his to judgment?

Or David whose single fling opened his to unending violence?

Or Solomon whose entrepreneurial pursuits tore David’s kingdom?

All these were for the most part God’s people committed to God’s purpose and surrendered to God’s revelation.

Yet they slipped.

Because baggage is packaged by the enemy of our souls who has been at it long enough to take advantage of our vulnerabilities

Knowing God and living according to His revelation is the only way to ensure your posterity enjoys their lives and prosperity without baggage.

But it requires constant vigilance on our side.