The Baggage Handler

The Baggage Handler is a modern parable about the baggage each of us carry around with us. I loved this book. I will be recommending it highly. The book is cleverly written and tells a wonderful story that will leave you thinking about your own baggage. Thanks to netgalley for the gift of the arc. Tge review is my honest opinion.

This is a short gem of a book, David Rawlings has just gained a place up there with Andy Andrews. I have read several books that resemble this style, thought provoking, eye opening and have loved every one of them. Mr. Rawlings writing is excellent, the storyline is easy to follow and wow, it packs a punch. If you wonder if you have baggage, this is a perfect example to let you know you do, and a perfect example of how you can re-think your situation and possibly work toward a happier, more fulfilled life.
I personally found the book club review questions very enlightening at the end, was a great way to mull the story over.
I highly recommend and was given an advanced copy from Thomas Nelson through Net Galley for my honest review, this one gets 5****’s. Excellent read, highly recommend.

When I read the "blurbs" on Amazon about this book, I see that the author, David Rawlings, is compared to Andy Andrews or David Gregory. That comparison is absolutely spot on.

The Baggage Handler seeks out people who are carrying around excess baggage and arranges to meet them through mix ups at the airport. It seems to be an easy way to get people's attention. In this episode, The Handler meets Gillian, Michael, and David and tries to get them to understand the extra baggage they are carrying.

What Rawlings does through his book is to point out we all have our own special baggage, but we have to determine how we are going to handle it:

Do we need to forgive someone?
Do we need to change the mirror we see ourselves in?
Do we need to live our own lives instead of letting someone else choose our lives for us?
Through the stories of Gillian, David, and Michael, The Baggage Handler gently shows each character what is needed to be able to lighten the baggage they carry around. One of the characters chooses to carry his own baggage and not let go of it, so this book is not filled with happy endings, but it is the ending they choose. In the same light, the baggage we carry has the same options for us. We can choose to relinquish our baggage to the One who can handle it for us or we can choose to carry it ourselves and let it destroy us.

This is a five star book, two thumbs up, and a lighter load to carry.

My thanks to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this book.

The Baggage Handler by David Rawlings is a cautionary Christian tale that will have you examining your own life. It was an incredibly powerful read that if you put the lessons into practice will aid your walk with God.
We all carry baggage. We pick it up as we journey through life. “Life isn’t about what you’ve got. It’s about what you do with what you’ve got.” If we do not deal with our baggage, the weight of it will crush us.
We all have choices to make. We can choose to be burdened by our baggage or we can deal with it. “People usually collect their baggage but they’d be better off if they dealt with it.” Our burden is not ours alone, we can give it to Jesus and ask Him for help.
Are you caught in the comparison trap? “ ‘How am I doing?’ So you look around and measure yourself against everyone else.” We should never compare ourselves to others. The only person we should compare ourselves to is the person we used to be. Jesus is our standard. We want lives that reflect Him. We need to live our lives free from guilt and envy.
Whose dream are you living? “Pushy parents are pushing their kids into a dream that’s actually theirs.” You cannot live the dream of another. Grab your dream and live it.
Are we working ourselves to death? “Those voices that complained he was never around were the same ones asking for better furniture, better clothes, better toys.” Are we so busy earning a living that we are not living a life? Who is suffering in our absence?
Where does your treasure lie? If we place our treasure in any one thing, we are misplacing it. Treasure is to be found in God and in people never in things.
Do you know the name of the Baggage Handler? Your eternal destination depends on your answer.
Wow, wow, wow! – The Baggage Handler – such a powerful read. My heart broke for all those carrying baggage. I recognised myself in some of the scenarios. I rejoiced as the scales came off and the burden eased. I mourned for those who preferred to stay weighed down with baggage.
My prayer for you is that you will know the Baggage Handler.
Thank you David Rawlings for the most amazingly powerful and thought provoking tale.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

THE BAGGAGE HANDLER by DAVID RAWLINGS is a very cleverly written book in which David, Michael and Gillian, after having picked up the wrong baggage off the carousel at the airport, each have an encounter with the Baggage Handler. Here they see, for the first time, the baggage they are carrying around, and have the choice as to whether they want to get rid of it or continue to carry it.
It is a book I think everyone should read, letting the Baggage Handler, who is to me a type of the Holy Spirit, deal with the baggage in our lives. It is, in fact, a modern day parable.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. My favourite quote is found at the beginning of the book and reads "What weighs us down is not our baggage, but our decision to keep carrying it."
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Thomas Nelson. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

This is a great, engaging story with a powerful message that reminded me of those written by David Gregory titled Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, Day with a Perfect Stranger just to name a few of his books.

As I read this fun, engaging story I felt like it was the Twilight Zone meets the Matrix as a baggage handler gives each of his customers a choice. One, they can make a choice to keep their baggage - let’s call it the blue pill choice. The bag will stay just as heavy as it’s always been. Like taking the blue pill in the Matrix, “the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.” (quote from wikepidia) – You are secure and comforted and live in a blissful ignorance.

OR Choice number two, you can deal with your baggage and walk in a new light. Just like if you were to take the red pill “You stay in wonderland and you can see how deep the rabbit hole goes. In the Matrix. “Neo learns everything that he has believed isn’t real and in order for him to know the truth about his world, he has to make a choice. Same as these characters.

Three people have gotten their baggage mixed up at the airport. They go to an off-site baggage claim center that kind of looks like the white room in Maxtix, that’s in an unusual building this is where I think they enter the Twilight Zone, wikepidia it states, “Is an unusual situation or mental state between reality and fantasy…”It’s the middle ground between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is a dimension of imagination.” Readers and customers enter.

Each character is under a deadline and needs what’s in their luggage to go on with the next important stage of their lives. They didn’t have time to mess with anymore delays. They needed their luggage now.

Gillian Short is first up to bat. Her sister Becky’s daughter is getting married and she is heading to help without her family whose to join her later. Gillian can’t help but be envious of her sister’s life.

Then there’s David Hawke a man on a mission at his company’s headquarters to discuss how well his branch was doing. He hoped it was better than his marriage was doing. He thought about the ultimatum he gave his wife about their relationship. It wasn’t pretty.

Next up is Michael Downer a high school grad on his way to Clarendon University trying to do what his dad wanted him to do; secure a football scholarship. His dad set up the meeting; but his heart was really into art. He had made an appointment to see the head of the art dept while he was there hoping he might get in that program and obtain the football scholarship.

Each one of these characters confront the Baggage Handler demanding their luggage be returned pronto. When they get their bags, the Handler tells them to check it. Each discovers things they didn’t pack. They discover some surprising things that unnerve them. The Baggage Handler knows more about each of them like the woman Jesus meets at the well. They were just as stunned by his revelations and what he is offering them.

Gillian says to him, “What an odd choice of words. Don’t you usually collect your baggage?”

“Yes, people usually collect their baggage, but They’d be better off if they dealt with it.”
“Deal with” is exactly what we mean.”

“Well, if you say so. They are just words.”
The Baggage Handler shook his head…”Words have far more power than that.”

Each of these people try to figure out what is happening to them in his crazy place where they are asked to deal with more than their luggage. They can go as deep as they want to OR not go anywhere at all. They have a choice. Quote, “What weights us down is not our baggage but the decision to keep carrying it.”


This is an engaging powerful story that will touch your heart in unexpected ways. You won’t stop thinking about these characters and the message of this book long after you read the last word. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins! www.bookfun.org
The Book Club Network blog www.psalm516.blogspot.com
Book Fun Magazine https://www.bookfun.org/page/past-issues-book-fun-mag

Review: THE BAGGAGE HANDLER by David Rawlings. I received a complimentary copy from Thomas Nelson through Netgalley. When three people get their bags mixed up at the airport they will have to deal with their baggage in more ways than one. These people are all carrying baggage from their lives that needs to be dealt with...some can and some cant. Great story! ⭐⭐⭐⭐Four stars.

Clevely written...a modern day parable. Enjoyed this story immensely. Experience this story yourself.

In the book The Baggage Handler, author David Rawlings, creates a modern day parable that challenges us to examine what baggage we have packed in our lives and how it is weighing us down. Following a hothead business man, a stressed mother of three and a young artist, Rawlings pulls the reader in their stories of switched airport baggage and in turn we glimpse into our own mirrors to see how past hurts are weighing us down to the future that God has for us.
This is a great fast passed read. I would highly recommend this book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A very quick read, that once I started I was finished in one setting.
You will soon feel like you have stepped into another dimension, a bit like the twilight Zone.
I could see this book quickly continuing with sequels, there are lots of hurting people out there.
Will the three chosen individuals here have life changes? Surprises are seen as we continue with the stories, and we wonder what is going to happen, and as with real life, not always as we hope.
This one is going to make you think, could this, be you?

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Thomas Nelson, and was not required to give a positive review.

It’s rare that I read a book in two sittings. This thought-provoking debut from David Rawlings kept me turning the pages to find out what decisions his three protagonists would come to – Michael, Gillian and David – all with struggles similar to ones we all carry around with us every day. It’s a deceptively simple story on the surface but Rawlings gives us a lot to unpack with the symbolism of the Baggage Services building, the waiting room for each person which is set to match their internal struggles, and the full length mirror they each must consent to view themselves in before they can leave the waiting room to rejoin the outside world.
Unforgiveness, bitterness, parental expectations, believing you’re “less than”, envy, fear of missing out, wrong and missing priorities, a harsh and critical spirit…all of these are no match for The Baggage Handler who helps each of them figure out how to “deal” with their baggage, hand it over to him and let it all go.
If you love C.S. Lewis and modern-day allegories, you will love “The Baggage Handler”. Available March 5, 2019 at: https://amzn.to/2tXPKxT

This is a short, but very powerful book. Through fiction, the author makes the reader look at themselves to determine the "baggage" they carry. He explains how we may be carrying baggage that we never realized that we did. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to take a closer look at themselves. But be prepared, you may not like what you see.

With an easily accessible voice and relatable characters, The Baggage Handler is fiction to enjoy while ruminating with a cup of coffee. Rawlings inspires us to inhabit the best and worst of nature as represented in characters who bring this soft parable to life with surprising dimension and depth.

Less divisive than The Shack and with a sterner faith foundation than Mitch Albom, The Baggage Handler has the light philosophical touch of Alexander McCall Smith, the intense messaging of Katie Ganshert and the symbol of thematic resonance of James L. Rubart.


The thinking person's fictional experience and definitely one to keep on the list of "What to Buy for People You Don't Know What to Buy for"

( seriously ---built in Christmas gift here).


An exciting and needed new voice in inspirational fiction.

Great book, easy read, very inspiring! If you are a fan of Jon Gordon, you will definitely enjoy this book.

In the same vein as The Five Times I Met Myself or The Last Lecture, this book asks the reader to honestly assess their life and what baggage is holding them back. It's presented through three characters - and you'll probably find that one, or more, of the characters are in situations you can relate to - and then these characters are put through a 'Dr. Phil-esque' rigamarole with the Baggage Handler. In some areas, it gets a little cheesy, but the overall point of the book is to take a good, long look in the mirror, identify those things that you can't seem to overcome (whether it's your own issues or someone else's that you've taken on), and try to move beyond them. The book does have a few twists toward the end.

Pull my heartstrings! I connected with all three stories, for myself, and what I know loved ones are walking through.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger was good, but this is better! Just as direct, but in a completely different way.

I found myself looking in a mirror as I read, with more clarity and perspective. This may be because I have been deliberately dealing with my emotional baggage a little at a time over the last year. It hasn't been easy, but as a journey, I am making progress!

📌I received an advance copy of the book from @NetGalley and choose to review it here.