All That Entangles

  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. 

 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.."

This verse has been running through my head a lot lately.  Maybe because for some reason I'm feeling those words and the tension they represent more acutely.  When I read this verse I picture someone running full speed ahead, ripping off things that would slow them down.  That's how I want to be.  I want to run a good race. I want to come pounding across the finish line on the other side of eternity to cheers and high fives from that cloud of witnesses.

What I mean is, I want to live a good life.  I want to bring love where there is hatred, peace where there is war, help where there is suffering, food where there is hunger, friendship where there is loneliness. I want to speak in wisdom, act in kindness, and live with purpose.  I want to be a light in the darkness and a hand reaching out to help reconcile people with their Creator. I want to leave it all on the field, so to speak.  At the end of it all I want to show that I not only put to use all the gifts my Master gave me but that I gained interest. 

But then there are those things that hinder and entangle. That sin that distracts me and sets me back and takes my eyes off the finish line and off of Christ. The offense that I want to let ferment.  My own desire to be important and to stand out.  I find myself wanting to be intriguing instead of wise, alluring instead of purposeful.  My impatience and my laziness and my want for instant gratification, my callousness and my self centeredness.  I'm afraid that I'll see something that tempts me, sitting there on the side of my path, and that time will go by and I'll find that not only have I stopped running, but I've tripped a couple other people too.  I fear that I'll test myself with sin because I think myself strong enough to wriggle out when I need to.

I don't want to be entangled. I don't want to waste my life on momentary pleasures and superficial things that boast much and deliver little.  I want to leaves grooves in the road that I wouldn't be ashamed for my children to follow.  And I don't want to come across that finish line ashamed, realizing that I forgot there was even a race at all.