My wife and I had the privilege of going to a Memorial Day 'Cookout' / Bible study at our small group tonight... It was a 'joyous' occassion to say the least... We ate too much food... We laughed until we cried (we have 2 pregnant women that keep us in stitches...) We then made our way into the living room to crack open our Bibles...
Our small group leader prepared an insightful lesson where we looked at several scripture passages - but we eventually landed in the book full of aroma, boldness, and rich taste - He-brews... (you get it - "He Brews"..? It's all coffee metaphors... Anyways) As we began to 'drink in' chapter 12 - we began to find ourselves 'stirring' around a particular passage...
" 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.." (Hebrews 12:1-3)
We got to thinking about these words and started to (in our own words) give our interpretation of what these passages 'said' to us... We were trying to figure out how - if this really was a foot race, how would Jesus fit in... What would His role be... After several different ideas and 'word pictures' from the group - I started to develop my own visual imagery (my imagination SOARS at times...) I started by going back to my junior year of high school where I was forced to run cross country by my basketball coach... I began to remember how difficult running those 3.whatever miles was... I started to apply those memories to my life and my commitment to being a Christian - and it started to become clear to me what Jesus' role is... "Fix our eyes on Jesus." He is the runner in front setting the pace of the race (The "rabbit" as one of the guys in our group said) and showing us where to go... The Holy Spirit, then, is the one that encourages me along the way... He is passing out Gatorade to me as I get thirsty and is throwing water on my face when I'm burning up... He's also there to say, "you can do it just keep going... I'm right here with you..." And then God (The Father) is waiting for me at the finish line with the most proud grin on His face, just waiting to tell me, "Well done, good and faithful servant... I knew you could do it... I'm so proud of you..."
Only one question now - anybody feel like going for a run..?
No comments:
Post a Comment