If nothing else, I’ve got your attention with the title of this meditation! Maybe I should explain before I’m accused of encouraging lewd and immoral behavior.

Hebrews 12 is an incredible chapter. It’s loaded with great revelation regarding the race God has set before us. Take a look at the first two verses:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”(NLT)

Now that you see the words in Holy Scripture, am I off the hook? The author of Hebrews is describing our Christian journey as a race. And so it is. But it’s not a hundred-yard dash. It’s a race that requires endurance. More like a marathon–26.2 long, often grueling, challenging miles.

Many, many years ago, when my husband and I were young and foolish, we ran the Houston-Tenneco Marathon. I trained for a year. My husband trained for three months and finished 26 minutes before I did. (That part still aggravates me.) I learned a ton of spiritual principles from that race. One of them fits in with God’s encouragement to strip off every weight that slows us down.

It was an unusually cold day in January of 1980. Many of the runners were clad in warm-up jackets and pants, stretching and nervously waiting for their much-anticipated moment. The gun went off, signaling to several thousand fellow “young and foolish” participants that the race was on. Adrenaline rushed like Niagara Falls, as shouts of encouragement were heard from the hundreds of supportive bystanders. We were warmed up, pumped up, and dead set on the goal that lay before us. I lost four toenails, permanently weakened my knees, and walked like an arthritic old lady for six days afterward. All that for a two-dollar mug and a ribbon at the finish line. But I’d do it all over again,if I were still young and foolish.

By the end of the first mile, I noticed the sidelines of the track were littered with pieces of clothing. Warm-up bottoms and jackets had been stripped off, as energy-charged bodies responded to increased oxygen supply and blood flow. No one, absolutely no one, finished the race with a stitch of extra clothing. We couldn’t afford to be slowed down! Toward the twenty-mile mark, I saw runners throwing off their wristbands, headbands, even hair clips. The smallest weight was a hindrance we could not tolerate. I’m just grateful for the rule that you have to wear clothes!

Michael Phelps, the recent gold-medal Olympic swimmer, was interviewed on Regis and Kelly. Kelly was intrigued with the idea that shaving his entire body could be of any benefit at all, but Michael patiently explained to her that removing all body hair could literally shave off three or four hundredths of a second from his time. In a race where every millisecond counts, that’s quite a shave!

It’s not so much the size of the weight, my friends. Neither is it necessarily the nature of the weight. Jacket, pants, wristbands, or body hair — they’re all weights that hinder our progress in the race God has set before us. Unbelief? Guilt and shame? Fear of failure? Unforgiveness? If we truly love this God for whom we run, we will not tolerate any weight that slows us down. We have miles to go before we rest, a finish line to leap across, and a prize to embrace at the end.

The Bible tells us that everything is laid bare and naked before Him who sees. Today is a good day to be vulnerable with this God who sees through us better than the most highly sophisticated MRI; to lay naked before the One who knows every weakness, every sin, every stronghold, yet loves us not one ounce less for them. I have awesome news for you. The “sin that so easily hinders” can be stripped off with one prayer of sincere repentance. That’s the amazing power of the cross. One prayer, plus one drop of precious blood, equals one brand new heart.

Ready to run the race of your life? To endure some pain, but refuse defeat? To totally lose yourself as you gain the Ultimate Prize? Then hit the ground running and start stripping! This is one time in your life it’s not only legal, but essential. So enjoy! You’ll run faster, feel lighter, breathe more fluidly, and leap — not crawl — over that finish line.

By the way, there will be no two-dollar mug and ribbon for you, Friend. At the end of this race, you receive Jesus and a priceless crown of jewels. Yet even then, the stripping will not end, as you gratefully lay that beautiful reward at the feet of the your most supportive Fan. After all, could it possibly belong to anyone else?