A new suitcase…

On my recent trip to Oklahoma to read some of my poems at the 2023 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, my suitcase wheel got caught in the airport escalator and popped off. The wheel went flying, the suitcase went flying, and I went flying! (You should have seen it – it’s the stuff slapstick comedy is made of!!) Thankfully I fell on top of my suitcase instead of planting my face on the ground, so other than a few bruises and a lot of embarrassment, I was not injured!

Long story short, I had to find a new suitcase quickly. And to my disappointment, the new suitcase I found was not a hard case, like the one that I destroyed, and it was bigger than I wanted. As I was looking at it on my hotel floor lying beside my broken suitcase, complaining to myself about the differences, I sensed an object lesson from the Lord:

I sensed the Lord saying that the old suitcase represented the places I’ve been in the past, and that while it did a fine job during its time, it was time to let it go, because He’s taking me to new places. The new suitcase needs to be bigger, too, representing that he's taking me to bigger places, and like the new suitcase shell, I, too, need to be pliable instead of rigid, because he needs to be able to mold me. It was a powerful moment that changed my whole perspective on, well, a lot of things.

I immediately thought of the bridge of my song We Surrender to Love:

“We’re ready for a new thing.

We’re believing for a new thing.

We’re ready for a new thing, in You.

We’re leaving fear behind us.

Holding on to what you promised.

We’re ready for a new thing, in You.”

We can’t stay in the old thing if we want a new thing, friends. And I, for one, want a new thing. Of this I am sure.

Please pray for me to be moldable, full of faith, and ready to step out into this new season, and I will do the same for you!