Ratchet Strap Salvation
Have you heard the phrase, “10 pounds of flour in a 5-pound bag”? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, maybe you use a different substance other than flour in that saying! Either way I’m probably showing my age. But the point is that we have always struggled with trying to put too much stuff in too little of a space.
I don’t know how to say “10 pounds of flour in a 5-pound bag” in Swiss but that was an accurate description of my rental car experience in the Zurich airport. You see, this was our family’s first big international experience and we had STUFF. Sure, Jan and I had been to Switzerland quite a few times and really had our trip dialed in with how to go, what to see, and how to get there. We were a lean, mean, traveling machine.
Enter the boys and things became much different. Just getting to the airport in the US on time was a win. When we walked on the plane with a 6-month old and 2-year old we had a lot of stares. No one wants to sit on an international flight next to a baby. It’s too risky!
As it turned out the boys slept the whole way over and Jan and I stared at the ceiling with our passengers on our laps. It was precious and also a great way to become extremely tired the next day when we were on a new continent and I had to get ready for race.
Stowed away somewhere else on the plane were two suitcases, my bike in a giant box, a jogging stroller, and two child seats for our soon-to-be dismantled rental car. We were not packing light and while we were “allowed” all of this stuff it was a crazy amount of stuff, even with two little crumb crunchers along for the trip.
Once at the airport our weary bones and wide-eyed children walked off the plane, through the terminal, and wandered into the car rental area. Naturally, I was a bit cost-conscious with my decision and selected “compact” for our rental car size. Compact seemed massive compared to “sub-compact” or “city” which I viewed as a hard no-go for our family of 4.
When we walked up to our sweet ride for the week the wheels in my head started turning faster than the wheels of the car could ever go. The mental math of seeing the size of the car versus all of the junk in our hands wasn’t matching up. Our car was too small for all of our stuff.
Not one to just ask for a larger car, I started folding seats, removing interior panels, and reorganizing our luggage. I found a spot for all of our stuff, including our boys! Except the bike. The bike was not fitting inside no matter how hard I reorganized. And the bike was a crucial part of this trip’s existence!
I had two ratchet straps stowed away as a precaution to this very possible moment and they came out of the bag and over the roof of the car. The bike went on the roof as well and I lashed the whole mess through the 4 doors and took off with a very tired giggle.
Once we made it to our friends’ house about an hour away we were met with hugs…and gasps. You see, in Switzerland it is illegal to have boxes or luggage loosely strapped to vehicle roofs. Ratchet straps? Verboden! But back home in Pennsyltucky this is a way of life. Got too much stuff? Strap it on, maybe flick the strap once or twice to make sure it feels secure, and then go on your way down the road!
The rest of our trip was not as eventful, in a good way, as our arrival. We didn’t have to cart around all of our stuff daily but our return to the airport was looming. Eventually we would have to deal with all of the stuff that we had attempted to carry in too small of a car. We could pretend like we didn’t have the burden of too much stuff but we knew that it was inevitable that we would have the dilemma of small car, too much stuff, and too restrictive of Swiss laws!
The morning of our departure was busy. Everything was in bags, the boys were up, and Jan I were about ready to board the crazy train that was international travel with our little guys. I loathed loading our car since I knew we couldn’t fit it all inside the car. And I didn’t think I could talk my way out of a Swiss traffic violation, nor did I want to even try! But then all of a sudden, our friends started loading their van with OUR stuff. There was no discussion or a chance to reason with them. They simply put all of our stuff, minus the boys, into their van and said they would take care of it. They took the burden of bags. Suddenly our load was lightened and the things that really mattered, like our boys and this amazing life experience of being in Switzerland, became the focus. And our compact car suddenly felt a lot larger! We saved money by not getting a fine. Our friends saw a need and bore the burden for us and we didn’t really argue because we knew we needed the help!
Once at the airport we unloaded our friends’ van and handed over our belongings to the airline. They weren’t forgotten but they weren’t going to weight us down for our journey. We turned in our rental car. Then we all hugged and said our goodbyes and reversed the process to fly home with a boy on each of our laps and zero sleep.
I was thankful we didn’t have to go all ratchet-strappy on our return trip. It was much better that way. It lightened our load. It reframed what was important. We didn’t have to rearrange our little car to stuff more into it and then have an uncomfortable trip. No more stuffing things into every nook and cranny and no more big items riding over little cars.
When someone offers to lighten the load you should take that offer. You don’t have to carry it through sheer strength. You don’t have to be bullheaded. There’s no shame. Receive the offer and let that burden go.
Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s not travel advice, although it is if you are in Switzerland and don’t want a 300 Swiss-franc fine. I’m talking about the weight of sin. Sin is 3 letters but it carries a lot of weight. And it separates us from God with all of its heaviness and bulk. We are compact cars driving around with more than a full load of sin. We strap it on the roof, stuff it under seats, cram our consoles and when we run out of room we just rent a bigger car so we can fit more in as we drive down the road of life. Maybe we think if we can fit it all inside the outside world won’t notice. I don’t have to name the sins, because we were all born as sinners. We can’t escape that, even when we think we are “good people”. There’s not one of us that is pure as snow. But we don’t have to lug it around all the time and find ways for it to stay attached to our hearts and minds. Thank goodness for The One that offered to take the baggage of sin. Jesus is still offering that today and it’s not exclusive to certain people. Put the ratchet strap down and Let Him. You can’t carry it forever and won’t miss it when it’s gone.
