Some people can eat what they want and keep as thin as a rake. I, on the other hand, only look at food and I can feel may waist thickening. It’s a never-ending struggle to get rid of the extra fat that moves uninvited onto my body.

I count the extra weight in 2-litre Coke bottles. I have this image of a backpack filled with 2-litre bottles that I have to carry around, or should I say drag around? When I force myself to ride my bike for at least an hour every day until I’m surrounded by a dam full of sweat and I avoid the fridge as if it was filled with poison, I can see the backpack growing lighter as it loses bottle by bottle.

Then you start feeling really good. Your clothes don’t stretch where it shouldn’t. You don’t get tired so easily. Your knees and other parts no longer groan and moan so much. It’s as if you have a new spring in your step.

But it remains a challenge to keep the weight off. If I don’t watch myself, I soon load a new bottle in my backpack, and before I know it, I’m dragging extra weight around again, struggling to walk, and I can’t even think about running!

In the same way, we can collect extra weight in our spiritual life as well, which will make it difficult for us to finish the race of life. The author of Hebrews puts it very simply as follows: ¹… Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.

When I walk around from morning to night carrying a backpack filled with extra 2-litre bottles, I get tired more easily and I can’t do what I should be doing. My parts struggle and will probably wear out much sooner.

Like one of my biggest friends. He is literally and figuratively my big friend, weighing in at much more than a 100 kg. His knees aren’t good and his other parts protest about the extra weight all the time. He can’t skip through the day as we did in our younger days.

It’s the same with our spiritual lives. Our spiritual life is a race that we’re running that we have to complete successfully. Sins are the 2-litre bottles that we drag with us in a backpack. Making us slow. Breaking our speed. We get tired easily and have to stop often to get our breath back. I suspect it may even stop us from getting to the finish line.

Let’s tackle those things that break our speed. Let’s practise hard and start getting rid of sin. Let’s be quiet and allow the Holy Spirit to point out the mistakes, so that we can take them out of the backpack one-by-one. And then we have to keep them from crawling back into the backpack unnoticed. Then we will be able to run the spiritual race successfully.

Scripture
Hebrews 12:1-3

Reflection
How is your race going?
What breaks your speed?
What sins do you have to get rid of?

Prayer
Lord, I struggle to get rid of sin. It’s hard to keep my backpack from getting heavier. Please help me not to do it again. Amen.