Jack Handey, Deeper Thoughts: All New, All Crispy.
Twenty years ago I used to love "Deep Thoughts" on Saturday Night Live. But sometimes humor reveals "deep" truth. "Let 'em go" is good advice. Especially if you're trying to follow Jesus.
Because it's a serious question: how do you keep going in this life of faith? Following Christ is not a sprint, but it is a race. We’re supposed to run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). But how?
Well, one thing is
to lay aside every weight, and sin which clings
so closely.
“Weight” (NIV: “everything
that hinders”) means mass, bulk. In the ancient world it was sometimes used of
a person’s pretensions. Pride adds a lot of unnecessary weight. But really any bulky thing that keeps us from moving toward Christ needs to be dumped.
And “sin that so
easily entangles” pictures a guy trying to run in long robes. In the first
century world, you had to “gird your loins” – hike up your robes to keep your
legs from getting tripped up.
Sin will entangle and ensnare us, trip us up, just like the weight of our own egos. We've got to let them go. Following Jesus is too important.
Sin will entangle and ensnare us, trip us up, just like the weight of our own egos. We've got to let them go. Following Jesus is too important.
