Lay Aside the Weight
Key Truth | Sometimes running the race God has set before us requires the courage to lay down what no longer belongs in this season.
Key Scripture | “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” — Hebrews 12:1–2 (NKJV)
There is something powerful about the way Hebrews 12 begins. Before the writer tells us to run, he tells us to remember.
“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”
Hebrews 11 has just taken us through generation after generation of people who lived by faith. Abraham went without knowing exactly where he was going. Sarah believed God for what seemed impossible. Moses chose obedience over comfort. Others conquered kingdoms, endured suffering, believed promises, experienced miracles, and remained faithful even when they did not live long enough to see everything God had promised.
Then Hebrews 12 essentially says: Now it is your turn to run.
That has particular meaning for me right now because this year Opendoor celebrates 40 years of ministry.
Forty years.
When I think about those years, I think about people who prayed, gave, sacrificed, served, worshiped, and believed. I think about decisions made when there was no evidence that what they were believing for would ever become reality. I think about people who planted seeds in one generation that another generation is now enjoying the fruit of.
We have a great cloud of witnesses.
Forty years gives us a history worth honoring, but forty years can also give us some things that are heavy.
Time has a way of adding weight to our lives. We accumulate responsibilities, expectations, disappointments, systems, traditions, relationships, memories, and wounds. Some of those things become part of the testimony of God’s faithfulness, while others quietly become things we carry simply because we have carried them for so long.
That is why the language of Hebrews 12 is so important. The writer doesn’t only say, “Lay aside the sin.” He says, “Lay aside every weight, and the sin.”
There is a difference.
Not everything that is heavy is sinful.
There are things we can carry that are not necessarily wrong, but they are no longer helping us run the race God has placed before us. Something can have been good for one season and still not belong in the next one. A responsibility can have been ours to carry yesterday and be something God asks us to release today. A method can have been incredibly fruitful without being the method God intends to use forever.
Even success can become weight when we become more committed to repeating what God did than discerning what God is doing.
And sometimes the weight we carry isn’t connected to success at all. Sometimes it comes from the wounds we accumulate along the way.
After 40 years of ministry, there are going to be wounds. People disappoint us. Relationships change. Leaders make mistakes. Churches go through difficult seasons. Things don’t always turn out the way we imagined. There are criticisms, misunderstandings, betrayals, losses, and moments that leave marks on us.
The same is true personally. Life moves quickly, and sometimes we become so busy surviving the next season that we never really deal with what happened in the last one.
Busyness and seasons of life can hide wounds, but they cannot heal them.
We can learn to function around a wound so well that we eventually forget we are carrying it. We keep working, serving, preaching, leading, raising children, building organizations, and showing up for people, but somewhere along the way the wound becomes weight.
That is part of what God has been dealing with in me personally in this season.
I have sensed Him calling me to lay some things down. Not because those things were bad, and certainly not because I am trying to run away from God. In many ways, I believe the opposite is happening. God is asking me to lay things down because He is preparing me to run this next season at the pace He has called me to run.
For much of my life, I have associated faithfulness with picking things up. If there was a responsibility, carry it. If there was a need, meet it. If something needed building, build it. If there was a problem, solve it. And there are seasons when obedience absolutely requires us to pick something up.
But I am learning again that there are also seasons when obedience requires us to put something down.
Hebrews doesn’t say, “Run harder while carrying everything you’ve accumulated.”
It says, lay aside the weight and run the race that is set before you.
The laying down is part of the running.
There are things I could continue carrying. The question is whether God has asked me to carry them. There are things I could continue doing. The question is whether they belong to the race that is presently set before me.
Maybe that is one of the questions we should ask after 40 years as a church as well:
What belongs to our inheritance, and what belongs on the ground?
We should carry the testimonies. We should carry the revelation God has given this house. We should carry the faith of those who came before us. We should carry our hunger for His presence, our passion for worship, our love for people, our commitment to the next generation, and our belief that God still desires to reveal Himself to our community and world.
But we don’t have to carry everything.
We can carry the testimony without carrying the trauma. We can carry wisdom without carrying wounds. We can honor the past without being imprisoned by it. We can be grateful for yesterday without requiring tomorrow to look exactly like it.
That isn’t dishonoring where we have been.
It is preparing ourselves for where God is taking us.
And that matters because Hebrews doesn’t tell us to choose our own race. It says to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
God sets the race.
And if God sets the race, then He also knows the pace required to run it.
I am becoming increasingly convinced that the goal isn’t simply to run faster. The goal is to run at the pace of God.
There have probably been seasons when I ran ahead of Him. There have been seasons when I carried things because I could carry them rather than because He asked me to carry them. There have been seasons when momentum itself became the measure of whether we were moving in the right direction.
But as I look toward the next season of my life and the next season of our church, I want something deeper than momentum.
I want alignment.
I don’t want to run away from God, and I don’t want to run ahead of God. I want to run with God, at His pace, in His rhythm, and in alignment with His assignment.
And perhaps that is why the next words of Hebrews 12 are so important:
“Looking unto Jesus…”
We don’t lay down weight simply so life becomes easier. We lay it down so nothing keeps us from following Jesus where He is leading.
Forty years have given us a beautiful history. Now another stretch of the race is before us.
So we honor those who ran before us. We thank God for every mile behind us. We celebrate every testimony, every miracle, and every act of faithfulness that brought us here. And then we ask the Holy Spirit to show us what we are carrying.
Because we honor those who ran before us by running our race well.
And sometimes the only way to run what is next is to finally lay down what was never meant to go with us.
Reflection
Prayer | Father, thank You for every mile You have carried us through. Thank You for the people who came before us, for their faith, sacrifice, obedience and prayers. Thank You for 40 years of Your faithfulness to this house.
As we look toward what is next, give us the courage to examine what we are carrying. Show us the difference between inheritance and weight. Reveal wounds we have learned to live around, responsibilities You are asking us to release, and anything else that would hinder us from running freely.
Personally, teach me to recognize the pace of Your presence. I don’t want to run ahead of You or fall behind You. I want to live in alignment with You. Give me the courage to pick up what You ask me to carry and the humility to lay down what You ask me to release.
Above everything else, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. May the next season of our lives and the next season of this house be marked not merely by greater activity, but by deeper alignment with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Additional Scripture
Hebrews 11:8–16 — Abraham and Sarah running their race by faith
Hebrews 11:32–40 — The faithfulness of those who came before us
Hebrews 12:1–3 — Laying aside weight and running with endurance
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 — Recognizing changing seasons
Philippians 3:12–14 — Pressing toward what lies ahead
John 15:1–5 — Fruitfulness through abiding and pruning
Isaiah 40:28–31 — Running without growing weary
Key Scripture | “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” — Hebrews 12:1–2 (NKJV)
There is something powerful about the way Hebrews 12 begins. Before the writer tells us to run, he tells us to remember.
“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”
Hebrews 11 has just taken us through generation after generation of people who lived by faith. Abraham went without knowing exactly where he was going. Sarah believed God for what seemed impossible. Moses chose obedience over comfort. Others conquered kingdoms, endured suffering, believed promises, experienced miracles, and remained faithful even when they did not live long enough to see everything God had promised.
Then Hebrews 12 essentially says: Now it is your turn to run.
That has particular meaning for me right now because this year Opendoor celebrates 40 years of ministry.
Forty years.
When I think about those years, I think about people who prayed, gave, sacrificed, served, worshiped, and believed. I think about decisions made when there was no evidence that what they were believing for would ever become reality. I think about people who planted seeds in one generation that another generation is now enjoying the fruit of.
We have a great cloud of witnesses.
Forty years gives us a history worth honoring, but forty years can also give us some things that are heavy.
Time has a way of adding weight to our lives. We accumulate responsibilities, expectations, disappointments, systems, traditions, relationships, memories, and wounds. Some of those things become part of the testimony of God’s faithfulness, while others quietly become things we carry simply because we have carried them for so long.
That is why the language of Hebrews 12 is so important. The writer doesn’t only say, “Lay aside the sin.” He says, “Lay aside every weight, and the sin.”
There is a difference.
Not everything that is heavy is sinful.
There are things we can carry that are not necessarily wrong, but they are no longer helping us run the race God has placed before us. Something can have been good for one season and still not belong in the next one. A responsibility can have been ours to carry yesterday and be something God asks us to release today. A method can have been incredibly fruitful without being the method God intends to use forever.
Even success can become weight when we become more committed to repeating what God did than discerning what God is doing.
And sometimes the weight we carry isn’t connected to success at all. Sometimes it comes from the wounds we accumulate along the way.
After 40 years of ministry, there are going to be wounds. People disappoint us. Relationships change. Leaders make mistakes. Churches go through difficult seasons. Things don’t always turn out the way we imagined. There are criticisms, misunderstandings, betrayals, losses, and moments that leave marks on us.
The same is true personally. Life moves quickly, and sometimes we become so busy surviving the next season that we never really deal with what happened in the last one.
Busyness and seasons of life can hide wounds, but they cannot heal them.
We can learn to function around a wound so well that we eventually forget we are carrying it. We keep working, serving, preaching, leading, raising children, building organizations, and showing up for people, but somewhere along the way the wound becomes weight.
That is part of what God has been dealing with in me personally in this season.
I have sensed Him calling me to lay some things down. Not because those things were bad, and certainly not because I am trying to run away from God. In many ways, I believe the opposite is happening. God is asking me to lay things down because He is preparing me to run this next season at the pace He has called me to run.
For much of my life, I have associated faithfulness with picking things up. If there was a responsibility, carry it. If there was a need, meet it. If something needed building, build it. If there was a problem, solve it. And there are seasons when obedience absolutely requires us to pick something up.
But I am learning again that there are also seasons when obedience requires us to put something down.
Hebrews doesn’t say, “Run harder while carrying everything you’ve accumulated.”
It says, lay aside the weight and run the race that is set before you.
The laying down is part of the running.
There are things I could continue carrying. The question is whether God has asked me to carry them. There are things I could continue doing. The question is whether they belong to the race that is presently set before me.
Maybe that is one of the questions we should ask after 40 years as a church as well:
What belongs to our inheritance, and what belongs on the ground?
We should carry the testimonies. We should carry the revelation God has given this house. We should carry the faith of those who came before us. We should carry our hunger for His presence, our passion for worship, our love for people, our commitment to the next generation, and our belief that God still desires to reveal Himself to our community and world.
But we don’t have to carry everything.
We can carry the testimony without carrying the trauma. We can carry wisdom without carrying wounds. We can honor the past without being imprisoned by it. We can be grateful for yesterday without requiring tomorrow to look exactly like it.
That isn’t dishonoring where we have been.
It is preparing ourselves for where God is taking us.
And that matters because Hebrews doesn’t tell us to choose our own race. It says to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
God sets the race.
And if God sets the race, then He also knows the pace required to run it.
I am becoming increasingly convinced that the goal isn’t simply to run faster. The goal is to run at the pace of God.
There have probably been seasons when I ran ahead of Him. There have been seasons when I carried things because I could carry them rather than because He asked me to carry them. There have been seasons when momentum itself became the measure of whether we were moving in the right direction.
But as I look toward the next season of my life and the next season of our church, I want something deeper than momentum.
I want alignment.
I don’t want to run away from God, and I don’t want to run ahead of God. I want to run with God, at His pace, in His rhythm, and in alignment with His assignment.
And perhaps that is why the next words of Hebrews 12 are so important:
“Looking unto Jesus…”
We don’t lay down weight simply so life becomes easier. We lay it down so nothing keeps us from following Jesus where He is leading.
Forty years have given us a beautiful history. Now another stretch of the race is before us.
So we honor those who ran before us. We thank God for every mile behind us. We celebrate every testimony, every miracle, and every act of faithfulness that brought us here. And then we ask the Holy Spirit to show us what we are carrying.
Because we honor those who ran before us by running our race well.
And sometimes the only way to run what is next is to finally lay down what was never meant to go with us.
Reflection
- What are you carrying in this season simply because you have carried it for a long time?
- Is there anything God may be asking you to release so you can run more freely at His pace?
Prayer | Father, thank You for every mile You have carried us through. Thank You for the people who came before us, for their faith, sacrifice, obedience and prayers. Thank You for 40 years of Your faithfulness to this house.
As we look toward what is next, give us the courage to examine what we are carrying. Show us the difference between inheritance and weight. Reveal wounds we have learned to live around, responsibilities You are asking us to release, and anything else that would hinder us from running freely.
Personally, teach me to recognize the pace of Your presence. I don’t want to run ahead of You or fall behind You. I want to live in alignment with You. Give me the courage to pick up what You ask me to carry and the humility to lay down what You ask me to release.
Above everything else, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. May the next season of our lives and the next season of this house be marked not merely by greater activity, but by deeper alignment with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Additional Scripture
Hebrews 11:8–16 — Abraham and Sarah running their race by faith
Hebrews 11:32–40 — The faithfulness of those who came before us
Hebrews 12:1–3 — Laying aside weight and running with endurance
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 — Recognizing changing seasons
Philippians 3:12–14 — Pressing toward what lies ahead
John 15:1–5 — Fruitfulness through abiding and pruning
Isaiah 40:28–31 — Running without growing weary
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