Are you full of excuses?

In my occupation (education), I see/hear excuses ALL the time.  Sometimes it is from the student...sometimes it is from the parent.  Sure, things happen every once in a while...but not at a daily rate.

What about in your life?  Are you making excuses?  It seems like it is the easiest way out.  You might say:

• I am just too tired to go to worship.  I won't pay any attention so I think I will just stay home.
• I can't serve in that capacity.  God just hasn't given me that ______________ (you fill in the talent there)
• I can't talk to them about the truth.  They may not talk to me anymore.

Any of those sound familiar?

Making excuses isn't something that just came about in the last decade.  If you go back and read starting in Genesis, you find many accounts of people making excuses: Moses not wanting to go and talk to the Pharaoh or thinking he was able to lead God's people (Exodus 3 and 4).... King Saul and his reasoning for not destroying the Amakelites in 1 Samuel 15...Felix in Acts 24....


I guess that this all comes down to why do people make them in the first place?  Are they scared?  Are they ashamed? 

The fact of the matter is...none of these make/made God happy. 

We are promised that God will NEVER leave us.  Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). Your strength comes from Him.  Do a heart check.  What is motivating you to make excuses?  Is your heart in the right place...or the wrong?

The finish line is just....right....there...

I continued with my "running" habit this last fall competing (against myself) in three different half marathons within a couple of months.  My body most definitely felt the heat as I battled through an injury that even today with a month or so off still bothers me (take care of your feet!). 


The first one was the end of September in Nashville.  I hadn't planned on one that early, but with some probing from a good friend, I decided to go and do it with her.  For the first time ever, I decided to run with my phone in my new "running" pants that had all sorts of pockets to keep your junk.  About mile 1, I reached down to make sure it was still there...and it wasn't.  We turned around only to find ourselves swimming upstream and I figured that it would be easier to tell my husband than to go through the crowd.  I don't know if I was worried about the phone or what, but my pace was great!  We made it to mile 8 where I remembered I hit my wall during my first half that previous October.  The hills were torturous! At mile 11, the brick wall hit me HARD! I could feel myself losing speed and hope, but my friend kept me going.  She kept pushing....kept encouraging....and I finished...with my PR (personal record).  It couldn't have been done without her.

(and by the way....a good Samaritan did find my phone and return it to me as soon as the race was over).

The second one was the Middle Half right here in Murfreesboro.  I knew the course because this was my "first" one the previous year.  It was a beautiful morning!  I caught up with more running buddies (some I had been training with for this race), and off we went!  We kept trucking along when I noticed that the girl I was running with was slowing down.  She had developed a cramp right in her neck which took her breath away.  After trying to get me to go on, I finally told her we had been training together since the summer and I was crossing the line with her!  I knew how it felt to have the encouragement because a few weeks before I had been right in her shoes.  We crossed the line with me cutting 15 minutes off my time from one year before and her reaching her PR. 

The last one was in December on the streets of Memphis.  I soon found that I had lost my other buddies because thousands had come to run the half or full for St. Jude's. This race was by far the hardest...and I know it was because my encouragement wasn't physically right there with me every step of the way.....
As soon as I entered the stadium to finish, I stopped just right before crossing the finish line not thinking I could go any further.  Two days before I had an injection in my foot and I guess that I was trying to protect it too much and my other leg cramped up so hard that it brought tears to my eyes (or it could have been the heat wave that found its way to Tennessee the first of December).  All of a sudden people started screaming at me to FINISH...YOU ARE RIGHT THERE!  I didn't think I could go on.  Somehow though, I gathered up the strength to finish that last tenth of a mile with a time I wasn't too proud of...but grateful to have endured and completed this race.

Hebrews 12:1-3
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, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

I couldn't have finished these races if I didn't have (1) my mind set on the joy of finishing or (2) having the encouragement to not quit along the way. 
Each and every single one of has a race that has been set before us known as LIFE.  If your eyes aren't fixed on Jesus, you will grow weary...you will lose heart.  One of the most awesome advantages to being a child of God is the spiritual family you gain as you are running your race.  Guess what...they are running theirs too!  The encouragement they provide for you....and the encouragement you provide with them, helps you to throw off the sin that easily entangles you. Why?  You are both fixing your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  

If you aren't a child of God, why wait?  

 

(Thanks David Roper for a great study in the book of Hebrews this past quarter and Julie Adams for the encouragement to write again)...