As I was studying for our Ladies Bible Class I read something that hit me. The writer made this statement ,“ But as I ran, I noticed more and more people tangled up in the weeds…” As I thought about that statement, it made perfect sense.
When we first begin our race with Christ, we are excited and ready to run. We are at the starting line, warming up, shaking our body to loosen up the muscles, stretching our legs so we do not get leg cramps, and the when the gun goes off, we are running like we are never going to stop. All we see in our mind’s eye is that finish line, but then something happens.
We stumble on a weed, then we fall into the weeds and finally we get tangled in those weeds because we have no idea how to get out. We grow tired and weary of fighting the weeds which appear to multiply as we try to untangle them. After a time, others join us as they too have fallen over the weeds and found it was just easier to stay there and not fight to get out. We become complacent, lazy and comfortable in those weeds. We ask ourselves, “Why bother? It isn’t worth the effort it takes anyway.” Sometimes we might even say, “someone else will do it.”
Others run by us on their way to the finish line and we continue to sit as the weeds grow higher and higher. Pretty soon we are lost in the weeds.
There are two lessons here the first one is this, we have a race to run and to finish. There is no room for quitting. We are expected to run the race and to finish the race. We are expected to get up out of the weeds when we fall in them, brush ourselves off and continue the race. The second lesson is this, when we see someone in the weeds, it is our responsibility to stop reach down and help that person out of the weeds and to run with them to the finish line. We should never ever run by a fallen runner. When we allow ourselves to do that, we become tangled in our own weeds of lack of compassion, and complacency. Without stating it out loud we are saying that person should know better, or we don’t have time to encourage them or to hold out a hand.
Running a race is not easy. It takes mental health, physical strength and emotional endurance to run and complete a race. Notice I did not say we are expected to finish first. We are expected to finish the race. Even when we feel we need to just trip over that weed and sit down – we must not. My question is this, Are you tangled in the weeds?
The Good News A Journey Through the Bible 