Throw off everything that hinders us..

.. With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too then should throw everything that hinders us, .. and keep running steadily in the race we have started (Heb 12:1-4). -- Something clicked between that and this from the liturgy of the hours: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and give growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating" (Is 55;10-11) -- that suggests something to me: progress. But the epistle makes clear that we aren't passive observers: by faith, and faithfulness, we actively participate. We persevere, and we mustbe smart in throwing off what hinders our racing onwards. Even as the divine life of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit and God's grace, courses through our veins and blazes in our souls -- we run.