Travelling Light: Part 1 - 'Pack what you need'
This Sunday, Simon Lace brings us the talk in the latest of our EBC services. We encourage you to reflect on the bible text and join us in the prayer that follows below.
Here are some questions to consider:
Readings:
Proverbs 15:16-17 (NRSVA)
Better is a little with the fear of the Lord
than great treasure and trouble with it.
Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is
than a fatted ox and hatred with it.
Ecclesiastes 4:6 (NIVUK)
Better one handful with tranquility
than two handfuls with toil
and chasing after the wind.
Luke 12:15 (NIVUK)
Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’
Psalm 119:36-37 (NLT)
Give me an eagerness for your laws
rather than a love for money!
Turn my eyes from worthless things,
and give me life through your word.
Prayer and Reflection:
Loving God, please grant me the wisdom to know what’s really important in life. Help me to leave behind those things that are weighing me down and to take with me the things that matter the most. Amen.
Questions to Consider
1. Can you think of a time you have packed for a journey – maybe a holiday or a hike – and you packed too much or too little? Do you tend to travel light… or take as much as you can?
2. Thinking about your home, or office, do you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff?
3. When did you last have a really good ‘de-clutter’? If it’s been a while, what do you think you could (and probably should) give away or throw away?
4. Thinking about the other things in your life… is there anything you are carrying around with you, or hanging onto, that is in a sense weighing you down?
5. What could you do to lighten the load – anything you need to let go of, and leave behind?
6. Imagine you could pack your life into a rucksack – but you have to carry it all with you for the rest of your life! So… What are you packing?
7. What might you personally sacrifice as an act of love for a persons or persons, and loyalty to God?
8. Before you set off (on the rest of your life!), do a final check – have you packed what you really need, and left behind the stuff that you really don’t?