Throw Off Every Encumbrance
“Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
What an incredibly rich scripture! The first thing this tells us is that there are those things that are not sin but still weigh us down and prevent us from “running the race.” We evangelicals are experts at recognizing and pointing out sin in each other, but how often do we hear a brother or sister tell us “You know, this weight on your shoulders is not doing you any good. It’s slowing you down. It’s not allowing you to become everything that Jesus envisions for you at this point in your life. You ought to let that thing go and allow God to fill that space with something much better. Here’s what He’s telling me about the upgrades He’s got planned for you…”
No, this thing may not be sin in and of itself, but it is an encumbrance. Other versions of the Bible use the word “weight.” It means a “burden.” Something that you should not have to be lugging around with you. Greek athletes were said to have run with very little clothes son, because they would cast of “every encumbrance” before the foot race began. We must cast off every extra weight and every burden that is not mission-critical.
What is that burden in your life? A relationship? A spirit of fear? Concern about money? Physical limitations? Lacking an upgrade in your relationship with God? Regret about the past? Disappointment about where you are at this stage of your life? The state of American politics? Things that are not sin can weigh us down and cause us to stumble and disqualify us for the prize.
One important thing I think we all need to recognize: if your encumbrance involves another person, it’s not that person’s responsibility to make it right. It’s your responsibility to talk to God about it and allow Him to help you devise a scheme to kill that thing stone dead in your life.
Too often we hope and wait for other people to change their actions, attitudes or activities, thinking that if they will change, then my life will be better. Nope. Not gonna happen. God allows those irritants in your life for one purpose and one purpose only: to put you into a position where you’re ready to kill something. And the thing He wants you to kill is not that person who pushes your buttons! God wants to kill that thing inside you that reacts to that person. There’s only one thing in the universe that you can control. Not what people say about you, not what people do to you, but the only thing you can control is your responses.
When we come up against something that seriously rattles our emotional cage, all sorts of chemical reactions begin on a sub-atomic level. Physical things happen. Adrenaline surges. Your heartbeat rises. You can physically feel the unrest. This is a classic example of the world of quantum physics interrupting the world of physical reality. Every cell in your body becomes prepared for a fight or flight response. It permeates you to the atoms that make up the elements of your physical body. All this from a purely emotional stimulus that originates in the unseen spiritual realm.
Here’s some fascinating stuff from Dr. Candace Pert:
Every thought you have, Dr. Pert found, has a unique neuropeptide associated with it, and your body, in turn, produces that unique neuropeptide every time you experience that particular thought (and the emotion associated with it). A neuropeptide is a simple, protein-based amino acid and is produced by your hypothalamus, a “control center” at the base of your brain. Every time you have a thought, your hypothalamus “translates” that thought into billions of neuropeptides that are uniquely associated with the emotion you are experiencing because of your thought. And then your bloodstream is flooded with billions of the unique neuropeptides associated with the emotion you have just been experiencing. Your thought, translated into a neuropeptide, literally becomes a molecular messenger of emotion. When in your bloodstream, these neuropeptides are physically assimilated by your body’s cells. The neuropeptides conjoin with your cells by inserting themselves into a special receptacle on each cell’s membrane— just like a key fitting into a keyhole. Each neuropeptide receptacle on a cell’s membrane is specifically designed to fit just that one particular peptide and no other. So once that neuropeptide finds the right receptacle on the cell membrane, that amino acid is absorbed into the cell.
Over time, Dr. Pert found, your cells develop more and more unique receptacles on their membranes to capture the neuropeptides to which they are most often exposed. And she also found that, over time, your cells begin to crave the neuropeptides to which they are most often exposed (and have built the unique receptacles to receive). In fact, Dr. Pert found that your cells become so accustomed to the unique neuropeptides to which they are most often exposed that they cover their membranes with nothing but receptacles for those neuropeptides. Actually shutting down other vital functions, your cells become nothing but vessels to ingest the unique neuropeptides they predominantly experience. So your cells start “telling” your hypothalamus to produce these particular neuropeptides because they have developed an actual physical need for them.
So if you’ve spent years thinking, “People don’t like me,” “I’m useless,” and “I can’t do that,” you’ve inadvertently addicted the cells of your body, on a physical level, to the neuropeptides that your hypothalamus creates when you experience the emotions associated with those messages of self-doubt. Your cells have built billions of unique receptacles for each unique neuropeptide you’ve predominantly exposed them to (through your emotional states). And your cells are now asking for them all day, every day. In this manner, your cells are, literally, dictating what you experience because they are controlling your emotional states. Your body may actually be physically addicted to certain emotional states, even if these emotional states are painful or unwanted by your conscious awareness.
(Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion, New York: Scribner, 2010)
Mere words spoken against you (emotional, non-physical entities) cause a physical reaction in you (physical reality manifesting from a non-material source), which causes you to lash out at that person (an emotional non-physical response), which causes a physical manifestation of stress in that person (another physical manifestation), which causes emotional distress and possibly spiritual damage (yet another non-physical reality) in that person’s soul. It’s a wicked and surprisingly efficient whirlwind of physical-spiritual-physical-spiritual whiplash that can escalate instantaneously and leave you wondering “What in the world just happened?”
Jesus calls us to live above all that nonsense. As the master physicist, He tells us that it’s possible to gain control over those sub-atomic reactions that bombard our brains with chemicals that cause stress and pain. The body and mind are so intimately intertwined that we really can’t separate one from the other. My late Uncle Lawrence was a pastor for more than 50 years, and he told me once about a feud between two old men in a church he was pastoring many, many years ago. One man finally agreed to forgive and get over it. The other man refused forgiveness and held onto his bitterness. During the next few years, my Uncle Lawrence saw this unrepentant man age, wither and die before his eyes. His unforgiveness ate him alive and cost him his life. The physical manifestations of the invisible realm!
There is that which is sin in our lives, and most of us—if we’re honest—know what those things are. But those things that weigh us down and prevent us from running the race as well as we can must also go. And it’s not because God is withholding something from us until we “measure up.” The truth is that He has put natural and spiritual laws in place, and when we choose to disobey those laws we pay the consequences. It’s just that simple.
If I clearly explain to my son that he will not get dessert unless he eats his dinner, and he does not eat his dinner, then what is my proper response? I simply withhold dessert as I promised. It’s not because I hate him, or want to show him who’s the boss, it’s simply because I defined the rules, and he did not obey the rules. So he doesn’t get any dessert. No big deal! He’ll hopefully learn next time.
In the same way, God has put spiritual laws in place. If I willingly choose to ignore or disobey them, then I will pay the consequences. Very simple. It’s not because He doesn’t love me, it’s just that he expects me to live according to some basic principles He’s defined. In fact, He has created the rules specifically because He loves me. I want my son to have dessert because I love him! But if he does not eat his dinner and I give him dessert anyway, that’s not love. A dishonest and unreliable Dad is not a loving Dad.
Some of those spiritual laws have to do specifically with sin, but some do not. Some deal with those encumbrances which weigh us down. God does not make them matters of salvation, but He is kind enough to tell us that there are things that we would do better without. And those things may be different for me than for you.
Life with Jesus is not about obeying a list of rules. Many people, believers and unbelievers alike, demand a set of rules, but that’s exactly what Jesus found reprehensible about the Pharisees. They lived so deeply engrained inside their rules that they lost sight of the true purpose of life with God: love.
So, now we’ve come to the real deal. Throwing off those things that weight us down—the encumbrances that prevent us from running the race to the best of our ability—must be filtered through the lens of love. Is this thing I’m clinging to getting in the way of a true love relationship with God? With my spouse? With my kids? My workmates? My friends? My church? Myself? If it’s not about love, it’s not from God. Jesus said it best:
He said to him, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Is there something in your life that’s weighing you down? It may not be sin, but it’s preventing you from diving into God with both feet. Give it up. It’s not worth it. As long as you’re carrying that extra load, you won’t be able to run the race effectively. Pray about it, listen to God’s voice, get rid of those things that are not necessary, and run like there’s no tomorrow!