Do you see what this means — all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running — and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.
HEBREWS 12:1 MSG
I’m sure you’ve experienced that frustrating moment when you’ve arrived at the checkout counter, reached into your purse to pay, but it’s so full you can’t even find your wallet. You begin to frantically dump the contents of the bag onto the counter only to discover antiquities dating back almost to the Dark Ages — half-eaten mints, movie stubs from last year, a pacifier (and your youngest just turned thirteen), that earring you’ve been looking for, and enough coins to buy your next car.
Sometimes our lives can look just like an overstuffed handbag. We find ourselves carrying so many needless weights and burdens. And just as all the unnecessary contents in our purses can keep us from finding our wallets, these internal weights and burdens will hinder us from having and doing all God has for us. But in an age of lightning-fast technology, worldwide interconnectedness, mass media saturation, endless noise, and over-programmed schedules, unless we intentionally take steps to lose the weights, it’s never going to happen. I know — like we wanted to become aware of another kind of weight problem!
Seriously though, what woman at some point of her life has not been obsessed with losing weight? The thing is, we need to lose “weight” in the spiritual realm as well! The Bible makes it clear that we all need to strip off every weight that would slow us down and hinder us on our journey. I think some of the weights that the writer to the Hebrews is referring to are internal ones: jealousy, comparison, anger, worry, anxiety, fear, insecurity, unforgiveness, bitterness, offense, lust, greed, envy . . . and the list goes on.
Every one of us needs to do a regular inventory of every area of our lives in order to identify and drop any unnecessary baggage we’ve inevitably picked up along the way. In the same way those extra pounds can begin to creep on when we’re not consciously eating right and exercising regularly, so it is with our internal world.
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
What are the weights that are dragging you down?