The Connection Corner

Letting Go of Baggage

Psalms 55:22 — Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

I am telling you. I need Jesus and a nap. Probably in that order.

It started in the airport with the smell of burnt coffee drifting from a kiosk, and the fluorescent hum overhead making everyone look tired before we’d even boarded. My gate was a picture of modern travel fatigue: people slumped in chairs, scrolling their phones, and clutching paper cups.

I was supposed to be in Baltic, South Dakota by nightfall. Instead, I got delay after delay. For hours, I just shuffled from one end of the concourse to another, checked my phone, and watched the same janitor push the same mop across the same patch of floor.

By the time the final cancellation came, I had already stopped hoping. I trudged back through the airport disappointed.

But you know what’s coming next, right? My luggage had already made it to South Dakota without me.

I travel a lot, so I have learned to pack light. But that one piece of luggage had my whole life in it (at least everything I think of as essential).

In the days that followed, I realized this debacle of losing my suitcase, in a way, was a good thing. It helped me to remember and reflect on how I carry other kinds of baggage with me everywhere I go. Things like worry, expectation, and stress,

I came home lighter than I’d expected, and it wasn’t because I didn’t have my suitcase. No, it was because I had a bed that smelled like my favorite detergent, pajamas that fit perfectly, and the relief of realizing that life is rarely as heavy as we make it.

Sometimes losing what you thought you couldn’t live without is the exact thing you need to finally run your race well. The weight falls off, and your arms and heart feel free for the first time in years.

So maybe today is a good day to consider what baggage you’ve been dragging around. What might happen if you simply set it aside, give it to God, and walk forward unburdened?

September 27, 2025/by Tammi Arender

Love Without Fixing It

Daily Devotional, Sarah Hall

James 1:19 — Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters; You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

It started like any other coffee date—two friends meeting in the middle of a busy week.

We ordered and found a small table by the window. The late-afternoon light stretched long across the floor. I noticed a sad look in her eyes, as she held her mug with both hands. It was like she was trying to keep from coming apart.

We eased into the conversation with safe topics, but it didn’t last. She confessed the load she had been carrying, the sleepless nights, and the ache of not knowing what to do next.

I could feel my instincts firing. How do I fix this? What should I suggest? Who could I get her to call. My brain had already sketched a plan before she’d even finished talking.

That’s my reflex. I come ready with solutions. It feels like love to hand someone a map, to draw a line from here to there, to make things better. But something in me—something quieter than all my ideas—said, “Don’t fix this. Just be here for her.”

So, I leaned in and listened. Really listened. Not waiting for my turn to speak, not waiting for an opening to drop a piece of wisdom, but staying present as she shared her story.

She talked about the ache she carried and the decisions she wasn’t ready to make. She didn’t sugarcoat anything. I didn’t either. I just asked questions and let her answer however she needed.

Somewhere between sips of coffee and pauses in her sentences, her shoulders softened. She was still carrying the same weight, but it wasn’t pressing her down as much. She even laughed once.

When it was time to leave, I still had all my “solutions” tucked away, unused. And yet, I think she walked out lighter.

I used to think love meant having all the right answers. But I realized that God really doesn’t require us to.

So that’s what I want to encourage you with today as you interact with others. Most of the time, the kind of love God is really looking for is just knowing how to be a friend.

September 26, 2025/by Sarah Hall

When Being Right Hurts

Daily Devotional, Tammi Arender

Matthew 6:12 — And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

A year is a long time not to speak to someone.

At first, you don’t notice how long it’s been. The days pile up quietly, like snow on a roof, until one morning the weight could cave you in. That was me staring at the silent phone in my living room and thinking about the fight that started it all.

I had been determined to be right. Not “right” in the polite, let’s-agree-to-disagree kind of way. I mean one-hundred-percent, no-question-about-it, paint-it-on-a-billboard kind of right.

I told him so.

I told him exactly what I thought about the way he treated my sister and me compared to our half-brother. The words came hot and fast. Dad’s anger rose to meet mine, and somewhere in that heat, I crossed the line from honest to hurtful.

Instead of walking it back, I planted my feet. I dug my heels in like a stubborn mule. And he did the same.

So began the longest silence of my life. Christmas came. No call. My birthday. His birthday. Father’s Day. No call. Somewhere along the way, “being right” began to feel empty. It was like carrying a trophy no one wanted.

Then one day the phone rang.

It was my dad’s best friend.

“Tammi,” he said, “you’ve got to make things right with your dad. This tension between you two, it’s killing him.”

I didn’t hesitate. “No. He’s wrong. Flat wrong.”

There was a pause. Then he said the words that split my pride in two:

“Tammi, it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong when you walk up to his coffin.”

Those words took the air right out of me. In that moment, “being right” didn’t seem nearly as important as forgiveness. I wanted to be close to my dad again.

So that same day, I drove to his house. I told him I was sorry—for my pride, my sharp words, and my stubbornness. I asked for his forgiveness, and he gave it.

That day, I learned you can win an argument and still lose what matters most. God knew what He was talking about when He taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

That’s why we need both kinds of grace. We need the kind that flows to us and the kind that flows from us.

September 25, 2025/by Tammi Arender