". . .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" (Hebrews 12:1b).

A runner knows that he cannot run with weights that would pull him down or back. So it is in our spiritual race, too. Not everything that hinders is a sin, either. Benjamin Franklin, in his Poor Richard's Almanack, wrote: "When confronted with two courses of action, I jot down on a piece of paper all the arguments in favor of each one. Then, by weighing the arguments pro and con and canceling them out one against the other, I take the course indicated by what remains." There are legitimate gray areas of life when it is a good idea to do this. It's choosing the better of two goods when two options are equally honorable.

What are the weights? They are different for each of us. They might be weights of too many possessions; works of the flesh that inhibit the growth of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit; certain habits that we haven't quite given up--the little foxes that spoil our branch so it rots and falls from the Vine and thus bears no more fruit; the most terrible weight of what we feel is unforgiven sin; the grievous weight of an anxious heart that cannot trust its journey to the Captain; a human affection that seems so innocent--indeed, it may be--but it overrides our love for God; the weight of society's mores, known as greed, versus God's mores, known as principles; and the constant need for distraction and noise that kill noble motives and pursuits.

Our backs and hearts are breaking from the weight of the world. Jesus begs us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest