What's wrong with it?

Heb 12:1 …let us lay aside every weight…

Let me dramatize this verse by creating a facetious little scene. Let us say that a runner comes up to an official when he getting ready to run a race and he says to this official, “I’d like to know what the rules are in this race. I’d like to know how much I would be permitted to wear in this race.”

“Well, what do you mean?”

“Well, for an example: Can I wear my hat? Can I wear my overcoat? Can I wear my boots? And, can I strap on a belt with a canteen and some other things on it?”

The official is apt to look at this man strangely. Does he understand that he is in a race? The question is: How little can I get by with, not how much. What is the object of a race? Is it a fashion show? Is it an occasion to get out and show off? No, the purpose of a race is to run as fast and as hard as we can to reach the goal and to win that race. We have all seen races and we know how scantily dressed the racers are. They have on just the barest essentials of what is necessary to be decent because they do not want to carry a single unnecessary ounce. Extra clothing might hinder them. It might slow them down. It might cost them the prize. Yet, for all of that, one finds in the Christian world today the mentality of, “Can I do this, can I do that? What’s wrong with this, what’s wrong with that?” The writer of Hebrews said, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute! Do you not understand what is going on here? Let us put aside everything that would hinder us.”

Some years back, I was listening to a conversation between a father and his daughter. It had to do with something she wanted to buy and wear. As I walked up I heard her say to her father, “Well, is there anything wrong with it?” Her father replied patiently but soberly, “You know, I wonder sometimes, if that is the right question for Christians to be asking. Maybe we should be asking ourselves, ‘is there anything right about it?’”

In modern Christendom, we are interested in knowing how much we can bend the rules to accommodate our whims and our fancies. The legitimate concern should be: How little can we get by with in the quest of running the race.

- Rev. D. Earl Cripe, Ph.D. (1934-2011)