“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
Recently, my daughter Aletheia began to walk. She is about 16 months old and it has been quite an adventure seeing her gain confidence to take her first steps (more coming in another blog post on that very soon). Now she is walking pretty well, even though it’s only been a couple of weeks. She has gotten to the point where she will now pick things up and play with them while walking, something she never would have dreamt of accomplishing during those first few steps.
Tonight, I witnessed a moment in her life that immediately brought to mind some theological lesson. She had grabbed a set of my keys which are attached to a lanyard and was walking around while playing with them in her hands. Since she is only a couple of feet tall, the lanyard was hanging down all the way to the ground and she would step on it. The tension in the lanyard would let her know something was up and she would try to pull on the keys, but her weight was keeping the keys right where they were. She would look at me with a puzzled look and then begin to cry. It was one of those moments that you might chuckle at if you’re at all a parent like me. She would finally lift her foot and be able to play with the keys just the way she had wanted to.
A few minutes later, and after a couple more times of stepping on the lanyard, she actually put her foot through the lanyard on accident. Of course, she was so tangled up that there was nothing she could do. She looked at me with sheer horror on her face and began to scream at me. I got up and helped her out of her entanglement but within about 30 seconds, she was right back through the loop with her foot. Finally, I decided that it was better for her to no longer have my keys as a toy, so I took them from her and put them away. Not a just decision according to Aletheia. She let me know it. She screamed, she cried, I picked her up but she couldn’t get the keys out of her mind. She didn’t want to part with them and thought of me as the bad guy for having taken them from her.
Oh the sins that hinder my walk. There are times where I feel as though God is getting ready to move in my life in a pretty incredible way, and yet sin continually trips me up. I am so often reminded of texts like Hebrews 12 in which God is pleading with me to lay aside and rid myself of the sin that will keep me from experiencing the fullness of the hope, love, joy and peace that he promises me. I feel like a child with my foot caught in a trap. Though I’m still learning to walk, my sin continually hinders me.
The difficulty of this situation is intensified when I actually get upset with God when I can’t simply enjoy the very sin that is hindering me. God wants me to care for others more than myself? But God, I’d much rather take care of me first and have the leftovers for others. God wants me to have a pure mind? God, this is an impossible task. The culture we live in is bombarding me with things that diminish my purity. Why would you not let me enjoy these things? God wants me to love those who are unloved? God, there’s a reason they’re unloved. Please let me focus my affection toward those who seem worthy of my love.
It’s ridiculous. How childish can I be? I’m like my daughter, putting myself in harms way because I’m unwilling to give up that which is tripping me up. I may not scream or cry, but I assure you that the attitude Aletheia had when the keys were taken from her is identical to the attitude I face when God calls me to a life free from sin and other lanyards.
The great thing about this text in Hebrews is that God is not limiting us by telling us to fight sin! Go back up and reread the verses. The reason we are called to lay aside our sin and other things that hinder us is so that we can run a BETTER race! It allows us to experience a clearer picture of Jesus, which should be more attractive to us than any other thing in the universe.
For me, this is a great reminder to hang up my lanyard. Yes, in the situation with my daughter, I need to know that it could cause her harm, so I am reminded to hang up my keys on the hook inside the front door rather than leaving them on the floor in the basement. But in a spiritual sense, get rid of the junk that’s holding us back from focusing only on Christ. Stop carrying that which will trip you up in your race. May we followers of Christ let go of it and experience freedom unlike anything we could imagine.
-The Pastor
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