free to run.

summertime. back roads. country air. windows down. music up. something about it just makes everything feel okay in the world.

the other day, i'm driving alone in the car just thinking about life. and its mysteries. and change. and a song came on the radio that really just stuck with me.

hebrews 12:1-2 has always been one of my favorite verses. 

“Therefore, 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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

sometimes i think life with Jesus is a lot like a race. but not the kind of race that’s all about trophies and winners and second places. more the kind about endurance and determination and a goal. a finish line. 

i think back to those days in middle school when i ran on the track team. and i was terrible. but i ran. and i think about the races. and how people would pass me until i was in the very back. and i didn’t care because all i wanted to do in that moment was finish my race. and i ran. i ran my little heart out. and dad would be cheering from the side. but i wouldn’t know. i was focused. never looked back. eyes fixed straight ahead. fixed on the goal. the finish line. 

i wish i lived life a lot more like i ran that race. 

sometimes it’s so easy for me to forget the first part of that verse in hebrews 12. the part that comes before our call to run the race. the part that says- let us throw off everything that hinders.

our enemy loves to do anything he can to hold us back from finishing our race. from seeing God’s work in our lives. from growing into the man or woman our Creator desires for us to be. and i think a lot of times, satan uses reminders of our past in order to do this.  

hurts. rejections. failures. mistakes.

we all just end up walking around with these big suitcases full of bitterness. remorse. and regret.

but how can we run if we’re holding suitcases? and how can we fix our eyes on Jesus if we're constantly looking in the rear view mirror?

it's so easy for us to obsess with the past and become so incredibly engaged in the things in this life that can't be changed. i will never understand it. but the truth is this- yesterday is history. it's gone. true life starts right here, right now.

brothers and sisters, it’s time to let go. drop your bags. 

by the grace of your Savior, you are free. 

free to run.

"One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

 [philipians 3:13-14]