by: Jason Williams
What is your favorite junk food? Pizza? (I like ham and pineapple.) Mountain Dew? Hot dogs? Cookies? Candy?
I have to admit, I like junk food a little too much, (evidenced by my growing shirt size). So, recently I took up running to help me get back into shape.
After several months of hard training, I decided I would try my first half marathon. I woke up one morning and set out to try running the marathon; however, since I woke up late, I discovered I missed breakfast. No problem, I thought to myself, I will just get a triple shot espresso.
Two miles in and I felt like I was Usain Bolt.
Four miles in and I felt more like Sid the Sloth.
I learned something that day. Coffee isn’t bad for you, but it doesn’t really help you run a marathon.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The Bible makes some clear points.
1. The Christian life is meant to be lived on the move.
2. We all have a race unique to us.
3. Weights are not sins, but they don’t help us run.
So often we find ourselves asking, “Is this really a sin?” But, the Bible makes a clear distinction between sins and weights (things that don’t help us run the race God has for us).
Galatians 5:7 puts it this way, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?”
In this verse we see that there are relationships that while they may not be bad, they are also not good; thus, they need to be removed.
It is time that we stop asking whether something is a sin and start asking ourselves, “Does this help me run the race God has for me?”
Jason Williams
Assistant Pastor
High Street Baptist Church
Columbus, OH