Lay Aside Every Weight
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. – Hebrews 12:1
The path I was following led through a lightly forested area. From behind me, a beam of sunlight highlighted a tiny spider
busily spinning a web. As I watched, a piece of forest debris floated past me and abruptly stopped when it met the silky web. I thought, What a bummer;
that debris will stick to the web as tightly as a fly, but it can’t struggle to be free. Now the spider will have to make another web.
The resident spider came from another corner of its incomplete web to inspect the debris, which was nearly four times its size. I thought the spider surely
would give up and start another web. But as I watched the tiny creature busily scurrying around, I could see first one, then another corner of the
debris begin to shift. In just a few seconds, it was freed from its entrapment and slowly drifted to the forest floor. The triumphant spider first
mended the small hole that was left and then resumed construction of its web.
As I walked away, some familiar words echoed in my mind: “Lay aside every weight.” Just that morning I had asked the Lord for wisdom to know how to overcome
a persistent problem that I did not know how to deal with. I had prayed that I would do the right thing. Total commitment of my life was not the question—there
had never been a doubt that I belonged totally to Him. Still, the inner prompting was very persistent and I could not seem to find the complete solution.
With this simple object lesson, I finally realized that this problem was a “weight” that I needed to lay aside. Even though I would still have to deal
with the situation, it did not need to be any more overwhelming to me than that piece of debris was to the tiny spider.
Now, whenever that problem starts to loom up, I remember my object lesson and prayerfully snip at the distresses that want to stick to me. Once more, I
have found that “whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.”