I can't say meditate without feeling a need to clarify. Meditate, in the most common, modern sense means to sit and be still, to empty your mind, and...I'm not sure exactly what. Meditate, in the Biblical sense, is the filling of your mind with the word of God.
I've been turning it over and over in my head, this verse*.
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.
The cloud of witnesses, in my mind, has always been in the heavenly realms. I guess it might include the angels, but my thought is that it is those who have gone on before us. Those who have also thrown off their entanglements and run with perseverance. Those who, because of their firsthand knowledge of what lies beyond the finish line, have reason to cheer us on.
Everything that hinders is huge. If I sat here and typed out every single thing that hinders me from running my race...yet, that is exactly what we are called to do.
Let us run.
Let us run.
Let us RUN.
Today, for the first time, I have felt the sense of urgency that phrase conveys. I'm afraid that I've been ambling all too casually through the race marked out for me, becoming distracted like a small child in her first soccer game; like one who is unaware of the rules and easily taken by pretty sights. I have persevered only in that I haven't dropped completely out.
I'm not certain of the composition of that great cloud of witnesses, but I can tell you this: I want to cross that line amid their cheers. I want to cross that finish line- legs wobbling, arms raised victorious, lungs gulping for air, wholly exhausted from having RUN.
*Disclaimer: I am not a theologian.
"*Disclaimer: I am not a theologian." Yes, but you preach it like you have a PhD in theology, Girl! I love your heart!!! And I love how I know you must make God smile!
ReplyDelete