Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Traveling light

By Pastor William Jenkins

September 21, 2006

I know where I was on Sept 22, 2005. I was with the rest of the greater Houston community parked on a freeway, fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Rita. Many stories were created that day and you may have one to tell.

In the movie Castaway, Tom Cruise plays a character that has survived a plane crash and is forced to live on a deserted island until his rescue years later.

This man, once a successful businessman who was blessed with many of the finer things of life, wound up with nothing and no one but himself. He is forced to work constantly to keep himself alive, and has to live in poverty without the luxuries he once knew.

Last year as we fled Hurricane Rita we were faced with the loss of our “finer things.” Like many that day, before we locked the door and left, we took one last longing look at the stuff that might not be there when we returned. Stuck in the traffic, I observed the cars, trucks, trailers and assorted vehicles laden with “stuff.” I was made aware of how heavily we travel through life.

When Jesus selected his Apostles, he gave them instructions to travel light (Mark 6). As they went from place to place they were to “take nothing for your journey except what is absolutely necessary, a staff, the sandals on your feet and the clothes on your back.”

That is a rather austere way of life. The lesson is to travel light. We should always relate to our stuff in such a way that if we lost it our essential self would be able to carry on peacefully. Psalm 62:10 gives this advice: “…though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”

This is just something to ponder a year later.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org