Weight hung around the shoulders of a runner I drove passed on my way to the gym with my daughter. My first thought was, you go girl. And you’re running with weight packs around your shoulders? Good for you!
Until I looked at her struggle in that vest under the oppressive heat. And realized so many of us do life like that. We live weighed down—as if it’s normal and commendable.
Now I understand why she ran with weight around her shoulders. She added a weight training element to her cardio because Lord knows us ladies need to maintain strong bones as we age.
But there’s a difference between running a few miles carrying weight and living years with stuff weighing you down morning, noon, and night.
…since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, … Hebrews 12:1, NKJV
Drop That Weight
So many of us women live plagued with guilt. Always feeling like we’re letting someone down. Am I a good enough daughter to my aging parents? Am I a good enough mother to my children? Have I been a good friend? Am I doing my best at work?
And all those questions swirling around in our minds every day are burdens because no matter how hard we try, it will never feel like enough. So, we’re left with an answer we don’t like, getting up the next day hoping to “do better” and change the answer.
But Paul’s answer to us women from the book of Hebrews is to drop all those questions. Drop that dead weight because it’s not making you better or stronger, it’s just tripping you up and wearing you down.
…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…Hebrews 12:2, NKJV
Look to Jesus
Your questions are noble but focusing on them makes it harder to run in the direction you should go.
Notice I said “should go” and not “want to go”. Because some of the weight we carry comes from comparing ourselves to each other. We’re on this earth to run different races and you’ll run yours better, looking straight ahead.
Looking straight ahead at what? Not what, who—JESUS.
He’s the one who gave you the faith to move closer to Mom and Dad as they age. Jesus is the one who gave you faith to become an intentional mom even though you didn’t have a loving example. He’s the one who gave you the faith to be vulnerable in friendship. Jesus is the one who gave you the faith to accept the promotion.
And like any good author, He finishes every story He starts!
Your part? Keep your eyes on Him. Trust Him. Faith is the muscle you need to work more than anything. Every time you depend on Jesus, your faith grows, and you recognize the grace He’s given you to do all He puts on your heart to do.
So, stop weighing yourself down with and guilt and self-doubt. You are enough because your faith is in Jesus and He is enough!
Weight training only works when you carry the weight temporarily.
VANESSA A. HARRIS is a blogger, designer of inspirational t-shirts, and the author of DADDY’s Girl Forever and its devotional. She’s a physician turned stay at home mom, who’s never lost her NY wit. She needs it for the three inventive children she raises with her husband in Texas.
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