Is it a wing or a weight?

Heb 12:1  . . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.

This verse always reminds me of the following bit of wisdom I heard many years ago:

"I once heard someone say, “If it’s not a wing, it’s a weight.” That’s good, but how can we tell the difference between a “wing” and a “weight”? In general terms, a “wing” is something that facilitates our walk of faith, while a “weight” is a hindrance to it. A wing facilitates a life of faith. A weight is anything that hinders us from carrying out our calling, something non-essential to our mission which consumes time and energy that could be better used in advancing God’s kingdom. A weight may be one thing for one believer and something else for another. A parachute would be unnecessary baggage for a mountain climber, but it is essential for a sky diver. A Christian may take up golf because it provides an opportunity to associate with non-believers and thus affords an opportunity to share the gospel with them as they play. For another, Christian golf may only be an unprofitable waste of time and money that could have been better used in other activities."

There are things in our life that aren't really sinful but are merely hindrances that can keep us from running effectively the race God has for us. (1 Cor 10:23)

Our choices are not always between right and wrong, but between something that may hinder us and something else that may not. Is there a weight in your life you must lay aside?

Excepts from Keller on Identity

As humans we need a sense of self that is durable and unchanging and a sense of value and worth.

Western culture – individualism: assigning your own identity.  You have to create and then achieve your own identity.  You are your desires, dreams and choices.  But these desires are often conflicting and changing.  When we take a good thing, such as our work, and make it an identity factor; a justification for our existence.

Quentin: You know, more and more I think that for many years I looked at life like a case at law, a series of proofs. When you’re young you prove how brave you are, or smart; then, what a good lover; then a good father; finally, how wise, or powerful, or what-the-hell-ever. But underlying it all, I see now, there was a presumption. That I was moving on an upward path toward some elevation, where—God knows what—I would be justified, or even condemned—a verdict anyway. I think now that my disaster really began when I looked up one day—and the bench was empty. No judge in sight. And all that remained was this endless argument with oneself—this pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench. Which, of course, is another way of saying—despair. (Arthur Miller, After the Fall)

When good writing was my only goal, I made the quality of my work the measure of my worth. For this reason, I wasn’t able to read my own writing well. I couldn’t tell whether something I had just written was good or bad, because I needed it to be good in order to feel sane. I lost the ability to cheerfully interrogate how much I liked what I had written, to see what was actually on the page rather than what I wanted to see or what I feared to see. (Benjamin Nugent)

As a Christian our identity is found in something or someone outside of our selves. It’s found in Him.  “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."  John 10:3

A reflection

I was listening to a teaching by T. Keller on hope.  He mentions Tolkien’s writings on fairy stories.  He say's the reason for their popularity is they convey what we are longing for: to step outside of time; to escape death; to love without parting; to hold communion with non-human beings and to see good triumph over evil.  These stories bring out a certain kind of joy.  For the Christian that joy is a memory trace of how life was meant to be – and will be again.

I think this is also the reason we find such beauty in creation, we are moved by nature singing the praises of its’ Maker.  It calls us in to be united with its beauty in worshiping our Maker and a reminder that our Maker loves us.