My
son-in-law is a runner. I say that with
pride because I never have been one, not in my entire life, as far as I can
remember. Bill began training for a
marathon about a year ago. He was running,
but in June he got serious about that training.
He began running between 15 and 40 miles a week, running even in
temperatures of 95 degrees and up. The
race came, and he finished! But the
running didn’t stop there. He’s still
running, down now to 9-15 miles a week.
That’s hard for me to even imagine.
I’m lucky to walk a mile right now.
I
thought of Bill because of a couple of verses, Hebrews 12:1 and 2, “Therefore
we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God.” There is so much in those two verses,
but the two words that caught me are “weights” and “sins”.
First,
weights, and I’ve had a hard time distinguishing between weights and sins. Perhaps we can just say there is an overlap. The Amplified version says, “stripping off
every unnecessary weight.” The New
Living translation says, “strip off every weight that slows us down.” The Good News Bible says, “Let us rid
ourselves of everything that gets in the way.”
That’s means the things that slow us down or keep us from running the
race well.
My
list of weights includes memories of the past, fear, weariness, physical
weakness, even a lack of faith.
Sometimes memories hold me captive.
A line from Martha Snell Nicholson’s poem, Judgment Day, says, “While memory runs like a hunted thing down the
paths I cannot retrace.” I admit that
this is one of my weights. I grieve, I
weep, I regret things that I cannot change.
Those memories can handicap me, stop me from being and doing what I
should. Do you have those memories that
are weighing you down? What about fear, fear of what might happen as you run
this race, fear of what others may think of you, fear of consequences? Perhaps physical pain or weakness has kept
you from running the race. No two races
are alike. You are not a clone of
anyone. God does not expect you or me to
run anyone else’s race, but we are to strip off the weights that slow us down
in our races.
Sins. Now that’s a heavy one. The Amplified Bible says, “the sin which so
easily and cleverly entangles us.” The New Living Translation describes “the
sin that so easily trips us up,” while the Good News Bible talks about the “sin
which holds on to us so tightly.” Each of us has personal sins that entangle us
and cause us to trip. If you’ve been a
Christian for a longer time and have had more time to take care of the sins
that are easy for others to recognize, your sins have probably gone
underground. I think those are actually
harder to get rid of. Sin is anything,
no matter how “small,” that separates you from God. These could include self-righteousness or
pride, judging, laziness, gossip, discontent, self-centeredness, prayerlessness.
. . . Fill in your blank. I think these
could be summed up as lack of love.
Jesus said the first commandment was to love God with all your heart and
the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22).
I Corinthians 13 says if you don’t have love, you are nothing. Wouldn’t
love take care of pride and self-righteousness?
Would we need to compare ourselves to others? Wouldn’t gossip disappear if we truly
loved? Wouldn’t we pray more for others
if we loved them? But without that love
we will be tripped up, will be easily entangled, will be thwarted in the race
God has given us to run.
Verse 2 of chapter 12 gives us the ultimate coaching for
a well-run race. We are to run with
endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus (NASB). We are to run with endurance and
active persistence (looking away from all that will distract us) and focusing
our eyes on Jesus (AMP). Reliance on Him is the key to a well-run race.
Are you ready to run your marathon? Will you run with me in the race? My goal is to
be found faithful at the end of my race.
Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:7)
May I be able to say the same when I have run my race.
~~Faith Himes Lamb
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