I ran across this while I was cleaning out an external hard drive. I thought I 'd share it ...
28 June 2006
One of my earliest memories is participating in a kiddie tractor pull. I can still remember how I pedaled and pedaled. The farther I went, the more I strained. I was determined to get to the end. I crossed the finish line and ended up getting first place. I still have my trophy to prove it.
Mom recently told me about a festival she and dad went to with my little sister, Rebekah and niece, Houston. Rebekah and Houston took part in the festival’s kiddie tractor pull. Houston’s results stuck in my mind. She got on the tractor and strained and strained, but couldn’t move. Then someone bent down and unhooked the weight. She flew across the finish line, ecstatic that she had finished.
How much like our Christian walk this is. We are weighed down with many different things in life. We strain to reach the end. We never lose our focus, but it seems so hard, the weight so heavy.
Jesus is standing there, waiting, wanting to lean down and unhook our weight. He said, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.”
He desires to take our burden, our weights. He, out of anyone, understands burdens. Before He was even born on earth, He knew He would be coming here to die. He suffered horrible physical pain (beatings; being nailed to a cross) and horrible emotional pain (being rejected by His home town; watching His mother watch Him die; being deserted and denied by His closest friends), yet He did what He did so that we can cast aside all weight.
Hebrews 12:1-3 says,
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance (a burden; a weight) and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lost heart.”
We can still make it to the finish line with our weight attached and receive our reward, but it is so much easier when we lay aside our encumbrances. Jesus faced the cross with joy (Heb. 12:2) because He knew the outcome: not just salvation, but the ability for us to cast off our weights and run the race with endurance.
Wow! Why do we pedal so hard when we can fly?
