Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Keith Simon. What are you carrying around that's weighing you down?

Kathy was a comic strip from 1976 to 2010 and it's about a woman named Kathy who

struggles with what she calls the four basic guilt groups of life, food, love, family and work.

In one particular strip, Kathy is sitting at her home with only her thoughts and she thinks to herself of all the things

that she should have done at work or things that she should have said to her boyfriend.

Things that she promised herself to never do again, but did anyway.

Ways that she made her life miserable that could have been avoided.

Her look of depression deepens.

Then she starts thinking about all the things that she could have done for her family, her puppy, her friends, her coworker, her

neighbors, her finances, her home, her closets, her diet, and millions of people in need

all around the world that she never met.

Then in the final frame Kathy summarizes her plight.

She says, even when I'm not going anywhere, I have 300 pounds of luggage with me.

What are you carrying around that's weighing you down?

Like Kathy, we're all carrying around baggage called guilt or condemnation.

We live with guilt. broken promises to your spouse, the grief of parents who were focused on the wrong things when their kids were growing up and now are reaping the consequences.

Or maybe it's your nagging conscience reminding you of how you gossiped about a friend.

Or the last time you looked at pornography, or the last time you lied to your parents or to a teacher.

We've all struggled with guilt at one time or another. It's a mistake to think that condemnation and guilt is only for major sins.

We can feel the way of guilt over any sin, big or small, past or present. And of course guilt

guilt can be good.

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