While I was out on my morning run today, I noticed a man walking towards the direction I was running. He was dressed in a shirt and jeans and I guess some sort of shoe. As I approached him he raised his hands up and said ” A cigarette and a Mountain Dew, I’m getting in shape too!”. LOL!! I almost had to stop running, it was so much better then someone yelling “Run Forest Run” out of their car window.
This poor guy had no idea he would be part of an object lesson today. Sometimes that’s how I think we approach our spiritual walk. We are out in the wrong clothes (state of readiness), with a cigarette ( secret addictions) in on hand and a Mountain Dew ( sugary drink that gets you going to short periods of time, but does not sustain) in the other. And then we wonder why our lives are not in order, and why we feel so out of shape and so far from God.
hm. What is your cigarette and Mountain Dew today? Can you set those down? Can you put those aside to focus on the good and better things?
1Therefore, 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. 2Let 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. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV
and then the always though provoking Message:
1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. 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. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (Hebrews 12:1-3, The Message)