Beware of Spiritual Busyness

"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."

This is the first part of verse 1 of Hebrews 12 in the NIV. The Message puts it this way:

"Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins."

I love that. "Spiritual fat." I think sometimes we cling to certain spiritual practices or ideologies as if those things will save us, when Jesus already has.

And right now, I'm personally in a season of throwing off everything that hinders, and what I've realized is that Paul separates what hinders from what's sinful. So, when you think about it, sometimes even the "good" things we seek and do can end up being harmful.

We found that in our own family. I think we succumbed to spiritual "busyness," a trap a lot of us fall into.

We have hearts that desire to help others, and sometimes, this in and of itself can become an addiction. Eventually, we find we're solving the world's problems when our own family is robbed of our time and attention.

A good friend of mine phrased it as "taking care of the church in your home first." And man, is she right. The believers within our four walls were given to us by God to steward and love well. And this is why Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, "If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?"

He can't.

I've felt this on an epidemic level, watching good families start to crumble under the weight of "spiritual fat." And my prayer is that we all take honest stock of where we're spending our time and attention, giving our best to the very people God initially blessed us with, because if we can't take care of those well, who can we take care of?