"....let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin
that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God
has set before us." Hebews 12:1 (New Living Translation)
I have a confession to make.
I need to lose 20 pounds.
For real. Like right now.
Not just for vanity sake (though that's part of it) but because of health reasons as well. 20 extra pounds is just not good for me or my heart. And my doctor is reminding me of it. So are my clothes that are fitting too snugly.
Sure, there are those who look at me and say, "you don't look like you need to lose that much." But trust me, I know the awful truth. And I see and feel how the extra pounds have distributed themselves evenly over parts of my body that don't need the extra padding.
It's amazing how easily a pound here and a pound there sneak up on you. Crazy how a warm chocolate chip cookie here and a spoonful of cookies & cream ice cream there, spell disaster down the road when added up. Until you find yourself tugging on clothes that fit with ease a few weeks back. Tricky how the pounds slow you down step by step and how a flight of stairs can start to wind you.
Then the thought dropped in my spirit: that's exactly the way sin is.
A lie here. A flirt there. Small comprises. Until you turn around and see that you have drifted so far from the shore. Farther than you had anticipated. And the life that you once had no longer fits because the sin has grown bigger. Fatter.
Satan doesn't start us off with big sins. Just like this 20-pound weight gain wasn't the result of a bowl of ice cream. No, the devil uses the the subtleness of sin to entrap people. He parades death in front of us making it appear like it's life. It's fun. It's satisfying. It tastes good. But when we bite and keep biting, we feel sin's sting. Watch death creep up all around up and fill our bellies with poison.
I see clearly the subtle ways the enemy works. A cross bone and skull on clothes because, well, it's really cute and hip right? There's the start of his parade of death disguised as life. A lie spoken to protect which quickly takes on a life of its own until the truth is no longer recognizable. Galatians 5:9 says: "a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." It takes nothing for what we thought was a small sin to zip its way through our lives leaving its mark of destruction. I think back on all those one or two fries that I taste-tested from the boy's Happy Kids' Meals. They added up and led to where I am now.
Every sin has a doorknob that opens the door to another. But of course, satan doesn't let the first door open to hell. No, he whispers in your ear that you are to seek your happiness at any
cost as he leads you down the primrose path to hell with his arm around
your shoulder. As soon as he gets you to his den of death, sin loses
its appeal and he locks you into it's tangled web telling you there's
no hope. God could never deliver you. You're in too deep. Done too much
damage. His lies are insidious and convincing to those who don't know
the Word. So they have no choice but to believe his lies.
I could sit here and think that these 20 pounds are too much. I've done too much damage. Gone too far. But any health care professional or trainer can tell me it's easy stuff. Get that body moving and push the dessert plate back. Way back! God is saying the same thing. There's no pit so deep or mess so tangled, that His love can't reach down and unravel it all. God can make the life that He designed for us fit again--minus the sin.
I won't believe the lie. And neither should you.
