Max Lucado is pastor of the Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, Texas. In the past fifteen years he has written over 50 books, and it is estimated that currently there are around 30 million of his titles in print.

It is not difficult to see what the attraction of his writings is for today’s Christian. Max Lucado is able to take deep truths and convey them in ordinary language. To pick up his volumes is to hear the voice of Heaven in the language of the street. Some might find that a bit off-putting, but I suspect that many will appreciate the fact that his works make the truth of the Bible remarkably accessible.

Travelling Light is an extended treatment of Psalm 23 – familiar words to all Bible readers. For Max Lucado, the ability to say ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ ought to release us from the many bags and cares we carry with us every day. This is how the blurb on the back cover reads:

The Luggage of Life. Haven’t you been known to pick up a few bags? Odds are, you did this morning. Somewhere between the first step on the floor and the last step out the door, you grabbed some luggage. You stepped over to the baggage carousel and loaded up. The carousel is not the one in the airport; it’s the one in the mind. And the bags we grab are not made of leather; they’re made of burdens. The suitcase of guilt. The trunk of discontent. A backpack of anxiety and a hanging bag of grief. Add on a briefcase of perfectionism, an overnight bag of loneliness, and a duffel bag of fear. No wonder we are so tired at the end of the day. Where do we turn for help? How about looking to an old friend, the twenty-third psalm …

And Lucado’s treatment is a refreshing walk through familiar territory, as he teases out the implications of what it is to call Jehovah our shepherd: it means (to quote from the chapter sub-headings), that we can be released from the burden of self-reliance, of discontent, of worry, of weariness, of hopelessness, of guilt, of arrogance, of the grave, of grief, of fear, of loneliness, of shame, of disappointment, of envy, of doubt and of homesickness. It means that there is nothing that God will not do for us.

This was one of the first Lucado books I read. It won’t be the last.