Travelling Light. The Art of Shorthauling it.

In recent months I have perfected the short haul trip.

Having spent 1 out of 2 weeks on a planes to various European based cities or work travel, i have gotten pretty good at packing small, and travelling lite. Which as a man carrying the amount of tech that I usually do is often quite a challenge. Here is the run down:

1 incase Go Backpack. 1 HP Elitebook Folio 13" - The Outlook Running Workhorse 1 iPad Mini 16GB Wifi in Black 1 Logitech Ultramini Keyboard for iPad Mini 1 Samsung Galaxy S3 in White 1 iPhone 5 32GB 1 Proporta TurboCharge Battery Pack 1 Pair of Beats By Dre Bluetooth Headphones (for the plane) 1 Pair of Senheisser in ear 501 headphones (for conference calling) A selection of accompanying wires, chargers and plug adaptors Washbag (including Gilette ProGlide, Molton Brown Black Pepper Body Wash, Kheils Face Fuel Moisturiser and Molton Brown Ultimate Shave Creme) Spare undies and socks Spare shirt. Jacket.

This my friends - will EASILY see you through 2 days of meetings and an overnight stop if you include the clothes you already have on your back without ever having to see a plug socket. Now for those of you still with me and who aren't currently working out how to steal my backpack let me explain why I bring this to your attention.

Recently I have done a fair amount of writing and speaking on the topic of discerning Gods purpose for our lives. As per last weeks post about "Whether God Cares Where You Work" - I have also found this seems to be on the minds of many friends and colleagues right now too.

One of the recurring themes in these conversations has been about the sheer amount of options that people now have - careers aren't defined for life any more and we are far more aware of the get rich quick learning options out there to get ahead. A trip into any airport bookstore (about the only place to find a physical one nowadays) you will find

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To be clear here - I think the fact that our generation will no longer have their futures dictated by the first 5 years of their working life is amazing - we have choice and that is great.

But I have noticed that there is an undercurrent of discontent being stirred by all these options with a few friends - which brings me back to my backpack.

The art of the shorthaul pack is not really about what you choose to leave behind - its about what you choose to leave in. Learning to mix the right blend of essential. In her book "Seven" - Jen Hatmaker took on the challenge of picking and eating just 7 food items for a whole month. She new she had to find the right balance of nutrition and versatility of ingredients if she were to make it the whole month.

Constraint isn't always there to make us exclude things. It is sometimes there to make us truly value the things we include.

God packed you and me with a certain box of stuff to be going on with in life. Some of it is bound up in the talents we have through our genetics, inherited down the ages. Some he gives us through the nourishment of great teachers and resources, still others are added to us by time into which we are born and the season in which we are called to serve him.

But whatever he has put into your specific backpack of talents and giftings - he put them their for you to use. He gave you a specific set of stuff you would need in this life so you didn't have to hang around checking in your bags.

There is great freedom in knowing you don't need to be awesome at everything.

You can just carry on.