“Run with determination the race that lies before us.” Hebrews 12:1 Today’s English Version
“It is foolish to occupy yourself with things menial, mundane, and momentary.”
My thoughts today are about “no trivial pursuit.”
In the early 80’s a board game, Trivial Pursuit, became outrageously popular, selling 88 million games in 26 countries and in 17 languages as of 2004. The object of the game is for players to correctly answer general knowledge and popular culture questions in order to progress through the game. The objective of your life is no trivial pursuit; it is your dedicated pursuit of life and death matters of ultimate and eternal importance.
Your objective is simple and clear: complete the Godly assignment for your life. The Bible describes your lifetime as a race that is to be run to its successful completion. The Apostle Paul enjoyed using various athletic metaphors from a present culture in which competition and its winners were highly honored. It is foolish to live out your years without any plan or purpose beyond the menial, mundane, and momentary. Filling out your allotted years is not the same as filling up your lifetime with a meaningful investment of yourself in things that matter eternally.
What gets in the way of your accomplishing your objective? The Bible classifies such hindrances into two broad categories. (1) Things that encumber you, lessening your pace and progress. “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance . .” Hebrews 12:1 NASV. What kind of things could possibly encumber you – weighing you down and slowing you down with unnecessary burdens? Worry is an encumbrance that grows heavier and heavier the more you allow it. “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.” Philippians 4:6 NLT. Read Matthew 6:25-34 NIV.
Distractions can also be an encumbrance, clouding your clear-sightedness and misdirecting you from worthwhile goals. “I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to Heaven.” Philippians 3:13-14 NLT.
(2) Things that entangle you, causing you to fail and fall. “Let us lay aside . . the sin which so easily entangles us . .” Hebrews 12:1 NASV. Supposedly little things are not little things at all if they compromise your devotion to Christ in any way. My grandfather, a pastor, talked about “besetting sins,” sins to which a person could be too easily tempted to return. Keep the cross between you and forgiven sins.
Don’t waste your love or life on lesser things, love is too pure and life too irreplaceable! “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.” Read 1 John 2:15-17 NIV. Here’s the simple secret: “Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom your faith depends from beginning to end.” Hebrews 12:1-2 TEV.
My prayer for you today is to recognize the difference between the temporary and the timeless.