Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
–Hebrews 12:1-2
A couple of weeks ago, I was driving along Highway 6 noting the plethora of signs along the way. There are all kinds of signs from billboards to neon signs to signs nailed to telephone poles. Some are very slick, some are old and faded. Some are in your face and some are more subtle. Whatever kind of sign, the goal is to get your attention and ultimately divert you from the highway or get you to do something you might not have otherwise done.
This is very much like the road of life, especially the Christian life. There are an inexhaustible number of things competing for our attention. Satan tries to use these things to divert us from our journey with Christ. Sometimes these are billboard size distractions and therefore easily recognizable. We might glance once, but we move forward and it doesn’t’ phase us again. Sometimes the distractions are slick and we stumble willingly into them finding ourselves off road before we know what hit us. Sometimes the distractions are subtle appealing to an area of your life that you may not recognize as vulnerable. There are even distractions that, in and of themselves, are not all that bad, but the end result is that we detour from life with Christ.
Christ desires a relationship with each of us in which we are continuing to grow more like Him. It’s pretty obvious that sin keeps us from growing. However, the author of Hebrews writes that we are to throw off everything that hinders us AND the sin that entangles us. When we begin to look at things in our life from this point of view, I think it puts a lot of things in perspective. Good things can become distractions as well.
The good news is that because of God’s grace, whether you have made a short side trip, a long detour or have been cruising along with half your wheels on the road and half off, you can stop and get back on the road. Wherever you are this week, let’s throw off the things that are hindering us and fix our eyes on Jesus.