At this point it's too far to turn back, and I would never dream of missing Frisbee. Ignoring the banter of everyone on the field, I played anyway. The jeans slowed me down, I tore them up, and no, we didn't win. Epic fail.
When I got home, I shared my frustration with Lauren as I tossed the now grass-stained and shredded denim into the washer. "Figures," I thought to myself, "Now I can have shorts on." At that moment it might have been because I'm a pastor with Bible on the brain, or maybe Jesus beamed down some divine insight, but I found myself flipping open to this verse:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us strip off every weight that hinders and the sin that easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1
I was an idiot to play Ultimate wearing pants, but it wasn't the first time I came overdressed to a competitive event.
Life is a race, my friends. We're all running it. If you don't buy into all this "Jesus died and rose again" stuff, I'm pretty sure you're headed for the wrong finish line. But hey, I'm biased. If that's the case for you, God isn't worried about what you have on, just get in the right race.
If you do say you're running the race of life for Jesus, then maybe you find yourself tripping over your pant legs just like me. My faith journey was always "Jesus AND..."
Jesus AND following the rules. Jesus AND my success. Jesus AND my video games. Jesus AND my workout routine. Jesus AND Saturday night parties. I even chose to get baptized partially because I wanted it to be Jesus AND the hot Christian girls that I thought would give me hugs. I was 10 at the time. Don't judge me.
You've got some "AND's" in your life, don't you? The Scripture writer above breaks these into two categories: weight and sin.
The sin part is obvious. You're doing the double life thing. You're going to church on Sunday but you've got that habit you can't kick. That rumor you know you shouldn't spread but you text it forward anyway. The grudge you still hold. Misguided rebellion. The hatred you bury inside yourself. The longing to be better than the guy down the street. The apathy that keeps you from doing the good thing you know you should do. Whatever it is, it slowly but steadily entangles you. You'd say you still follow Jesus, but truth be told, it's exhausting. Wearing pants and running will always wear you out.
The weight thing might be a little trickier. By itself, it's not a bad thing. Ancient runners would wear heavy weights around their ankles as they traveled on foot to the race. Moments before launch, these athletes would remove the weights, thus taking their first steps as light as a feather and as strong as a stallion. But no fool would ever consider wearing the weights for the race.
Putting a few extra hours into your job isn't a bad thing. Spending some time on video games, board games, and card games aren't either. Going to a party doesn't make you a sinner. Eating at fancy restaurants or driving nice cars are okay hobbies to have. These things are okay by themselves, but I'm pretty sure there comes a point when we're no longer just enjoying them. They become weights. Those are our "AND's." It's a lot like wearing pants to a race.
A lot of people look at Christianity as a burden. You have to do this list of rules and not do all these no no's. This verse tells a different story. Faith in Jesus is about freedom. It's about letting go of things that make our lives heavy. We're running the race of life anyway, so why not run it the best way possible?
Jesus never had to take sin off of himself, but he did take off his divinity. He did run a race that led him to death, and he ran it so freely that not even death could stop him. This Easter we celebrate Jesus' victory across the finish line into eternity.
With that, he invites us to strip off whatever hinders us from running the race he has for us. He invites us to run with him. It's time to drop whatever "pants" we're still wearing and run with endurance the race marked out for us. I don't know what the "pants" in your life are, but please take them off!
