How Much Do You Weigh?

“Let us also lay aide every weight and sin which clings so closely and

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

Hebrews 12:1b-2a

It’s the first thing they do when you walk into the doctor’s office.  Before they put you in a room, they put on a scale and weigh you.  Usually the number stares you right in the face.  I always tell them, “I guess I get the bad news first.”  To be honest it is bad news for me.  I weigh too much.  It affects how my body feels.   My body aches.  I have Type 2 diabetes and… Well I’ll stop there. 

The truth is I have no one to blame but myself.  I know what the things I need to do.  I know that I need to change my diet… I need to exercise more… to do the things I need to be healthy.  I have all sorts of people around me who have and continue to encourage me to eat and live healthy. Being told what I should do is not the same as listening.  Knowing is not the same as doing.    The other day at lunch with our staff, our DCE had salmon and asparagus. I really admire him for his discipline and choices.  He has lost a lot of weight.  I thought I should order that.  I knew it. But I didn’t do it. I ordered wings and fries.  Oh, I did refuse desert, but that was a belated good choice. The truth is I weigh too much.  That’s not going to get better unless I change.

Now I am not sharing this to put myself down or whine.  I share this as an illustration.  I think this applies to us spiritually.  What do you weigh spiritually?  What are the burdens you are carrying that are too heavy – the worries?  The fears?  The guilt?  The ongoing struggles?  Whatever it is, it is a drag on you spiritually, just the way my weight is physically.   Here is how King David described what it was like when he was hiding his guilt over adultery and murder.  “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”  At that moment, David was heavily weighed down by a burden of guilt.

Yet the truth is, he had no one to blame but himself.  He committed the sins. He lied.  He tried to hide what he had done.  In so doing He insisted on carrying all that weight himself and it was too much for him.  The same is true for us.  We have no one to blame but ourselves for the heavy burdens we cry.  We commit the sin.  We cling to our worries like a security blanket. 

What makes that worse is that we don’t have to. David didn’t have to. Just as I have all I need to change my health habits, so you and I have all we need in Christ to be free of our spiritual weights.  We have a God who gave His own Son to save us… a Savior who carried all our burdens to the cross for us… one who overcame those burdens with Him resurrection. He invites us, “Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  St. Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety upon Him for He cares for you.”    Listen to how everything changed for David when He gave His burdens to God, when he confessed his sin and guilt.  “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD and you forgave the iniquity of my…”  A verse later you can almost feel that the weight is gone.  “You are my hiding place; your preserve me from trouble; you surround me with songs of deliverance.”

The race of life that God has called us to is a marathon not a 100-yard dash.  How much easier to run without trying to carry all that weight.  All you need do is go to God.  Pray. If it would help come see me or Pastor Bauer or another.  Ask for a Stephen Minister.  Join a small group.  Find a place like AA or Celebrate Recovery.  As we read in Hebrews 12 – “lay aide every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

You know the resources God has provided.  You know what he can do… Now it’s time for the doing… for you to avail yourself of His doing in your life… It’s time to lose some weight.