Hindrance

Seeing as I am a college-aged guy, I can answer this question with relative accuracy from the perspective of what I think to be the things that hinder me. The fallacy in having this incite is that it is indeed insight about myself from myself, and lacks an unbiased third party to see more clearly the effects of my hindrances. I say this to make clear that what I can express is the sin and some of the effects I see myself and others dabble in, but that the beautiful prize, which we are held back from by our sin, is what we cannot rightly understand if we have not reached it yet. And perhaps in this case what we do not rightly understand is what we need to understand the most. As we run the race marked out for us, we throw off all that hinders us, but we only need to throw off that which hinders us if it hinders us from something else. Weights and chains would not be a burden if we were simply sitting, but they become annoyances when we are running toward something else more worthy than the chains. So before I go on talking about what these obstructions are, remember they can only be beaten when we are focused on obtaining something else besides them. We must plead with Christ to draw up our heads from frail idols to gaze upon the infinite splendor and surpassing worth of Jesus.

The first obstruction is that of sexual sin. Sadly, we read this and it comes as no surprise, for we know it to be a most consuming pitfall, claiming the lives of many. It is almost common knowledge, and its commonness, if we are not careful, can lead to a slight acceptance of the fact that many will fall into it to no large consequence. We may be tempted to view this sin as one views a buzzing gnat on a hot day. The pestering bug simply comes along with summer afternoons at the park, and must be accepted as a slight annoyance as long as you are having a picnic on the grass. So let us stop and realize the horridness that the world calls normal and vow to never look at the sin as acceptable or equal in offense to the many smaller sins. For sexual sin is different, not in the basic attribute that all sin makes us sinners, but in the fact that Paul says he who sins sexually sins not only outside his body, but against his body, and we are the body of Christ and sin against our own body brings Christ into the act. This sin brought down fire upon Sodom and death upon Gomorrah and its level of offense could be elaborated on many levels. But why is its sting so deadly? For one, it never satisfies and we trick ourselves into thinking that if we have but a little more we will be satisfied until we find ourselves further away from God than we ever intended. Such deception is the nature of all sin. We cannot know how far from God this sin holds us until we overcome it. How can the person who easily collapses under temptation know the devastating power of the sin. As C.S. Lewis explains it, they are like a tree that instantly gives into the wind of temptation, but once they collapse, they no longer feel the force of the temptation for they haven given into the apathetic, trance like state that sin often leaves in its wakes, and have little perspective. But those who stand firm against the wind feel its power all the more and see the effects from a higher and clearer view than those who have collapsed under its force. From personal experience, I can confess to having not the slightest clue to the collateral damage sexual sin was bringing in my life, and only after victory over major areas was I able to see where I once laid helpless on the ground. Surely the trees that stand against the wind are able to stretch out their branches to feel the warmth of the sun just as we are freed to know Jesus on deep levels we never knew were possible when we ran after him with chains of lust on our legs and arms.

The second hindrance I wanted to discuss will in some degree be answered in my response to Nathan’s next question. Also, it is late and my bed looks very appealing to me right now so I will have to delay. But just to state it without elaboration, I would say the one of the greatest hindrances takes effect when we believe the world’s lie that college is all about us and our own satisfaction. College is one of the most inherently selfish times of life and the attitude that we are entitled to fill our schedule with the things that will most appease the “appetites of our stomach,” is a great deception I must daily reject, sometimes to little avail. It is especially made more complicated when following Christ is itself made a mere means to an end of finding worldly comforts we desire, like the approval of men, and not truly for the love God.