Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

This past January I watched my son trying to lose weight. But not by going to the gym.

Many people start gym memberships in January and usually by the end of February have either canceled that membership or continue to pay thinking they will start going there soon.

My son didn’t need to lose that kind of weight. He is a weight lifter and has been a licensed personal trainer. The weight he was most worried about was how much his suitcase weighed.

You see, my son lives in Grenada where he is going to school and he was packing his bags to go back to his home. He didn’t need clothes or toiletries. He was filling his suitcase with food that he can’t really purchase there or that is really expensive.

Every time he travels back to his home, he goes through the routine of making sure that his suitcase is under the weight limit for plane travel since he doesn’t want to pay extra. Every time he has ended up leaving stuff behind that just weighed too much.

As I watched my son pack, of course I was sad that he was leaving once again, but I reflected on Hebrews 12:1: 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.”

God wants us to lose weight as well. He wants us to let go of anything that we have packed into our lives. He wants us to lose the weight that we carry on our backs. He wants us to shed the extras in our lives that snag on things and hold us back.

The great thing is that Jesus took all that weight and carried it to the cross and to the tomb. The even greater thing is that when He came out of the tomb, all that weight was left behind. Jesus and His people can run victoriously towards the kingdom of heaven knowing that there is a place for each one and it has our name on it.

As January comes to an end this month, you may still be keeping those New Years’ resolutions. Or like most you may have already forgotten them.

But as Christians, please do not forget that Jesus took the weight and continues to ask us to give it to Him. We then will continue to grow spiritually and will be lights in our communities and to the world.