As I considered the highlighted section from Hebrews, I thought of a scene from the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest was a mentally slow and physically challenged child who had to wear braces on his legs, and he moved painfully slow until one day a miracle occurred. As he was walking home from school with his friend, Jenny, a group of bullies road up on their bicycles and began throwing rocks at him. Jenny tells Forrest to run and, as he runs away, his braces come off. With the weight of the braces and pain miraculously removed, he runs so fast that the boys on bikes can’t catch him.

Just as Forrest, as a result of the miracle he experienced, we are challenged to “… lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, …” We are instructed to lay aside, to shed, things that would hold us back from “running.” For us, sin is the easy part of this verse because, for the most part, we know sin and what we are to do with it. In fact, the problem is we know sin really well, and we also know we are to shun it and seek His righteousness in our lives. I’m not saying it is easy to rid ourselves of it, but surely sin is easy for us to identify the majority of the time and we at least have instruction from the Lord on what to do. The more difficult part of this passage to deal with is the “every weight” part. For sure “weight” can include the sin that can be so readily present in our lives, but there are also weights we carry that are not sin but which can equally hold us back in the race the Lord has set before us. Like the braces and pain that held Forrest back from running for so many years, these weights can keep us from running freely for the Lord.

In sharing the news of my diagnosis of ALS with friends and family, so many times their loving response was, “I am so sorry…” Having been in their so many times myself, I realized that many didn’t know what else to say – I mean, what DO you say to someone who is told they have a disease that has no cure and will eventually take their life? But then, the “miraculous” happened. The Lord, as only He can, began to reveal to me weights that existed in my life, things that I had placed so much importance upon and had allowed to have influence in my life. As He did this, those weights began to take their proper place, fading into the background allowing those things that are truly important to take center stage: faith, family, faithfulness, and forever. This allowed me to respond to those who spoke those loving words to me, “Please don’t be sorry… in fact, I am sorry for you!” This was not said flippantly but in all sincerity, recognizing that those four things – faith, family, faithfulness, and forever – framed for me what is truly important, and what is so easy to forget in the midst of living life:

• An unwavering faith and trust in the God who knows all, sees all, and is in the midst of all… a faith that frees me up to face an outlook and potential outcome that would serve to buckle ones knees, and allows me to run without the hindrances of uncertainty, fear, and doubt.
• A genuine love for family and a recognition that, next to my ministry unto the Lord, they are my highest order of ministry… ministering in and through faith to my wife and kids, my mom and dad and sister, to my other biological family members as I am able, and also to my Christian family of brothers and sisters. In that, I am freed up to love like Christ  – wanting the best for others, even at my greatest expense – not tied up by the bonds of self-centeredness.
• A sincere faithfulness to the call of God on my life to be a testimony and witness of His greatness and goodness, regardless of the cost, knowing that He has given me all I need for life and godliness, allowing me to live a simple life centered on making Him known in all I do. Knowing He has even fashioned the very works I am to do, I am set free from seeking things to do for Him and only need to seek His leading, through His Spirit, and obediently walk daily in Him through whatever He puts before me.
• A view of the future through the lens of the eternality of God, reminding me again this life is but a vapor… that we are “here for seventy and gone for eternity.” This view prompts me to remember again that this life is not about me but, rather, about being a tool in the hands of God that He might use me to draw others to Him. Seeing in this way allows me to focus on daily looking to Him to “take me where He wants me to go, to do what He wants me to do, to speak to who He wants me to speak to, to say what He wants me to say,” trusting that as I do He will manifest His will in and through my life.