I’m only doing what had to be done lol …just roll with it.

Entanglements are easy. The Bible says they are. So while it’s easy to get laughs and criticize the choice of words someone describing their own transgressions, the word choice actually isn’t all that far off from the truth. 

What I’m not about to do is indulge in celebrity gossip—at least not here. I’ve got private conversational space to do that. What I Will do is give a little context for you readers who may be lost as to why my word choices have any current relevance…

There’s a married famous person who had an affair with an unmarried less-famous person. When they sat down for a publicly broadcast conversation with their spouse about it, they described their affair as an “entanglement.” 

“An entanglement?”

Entanglement. 

From an external perspective, most of the sins we commit against others have names. An affair is an affair. Abuse is abuse. Assault is assault. Harassment is harassment. Discrimination is discrimination. Racism is racism. Rape is rape. Murder is murder. 

However, from the first person perspective (you talking about you; me talking about me), plain and simple, sin is an entanglement. And as I mentioned before, entanglements are easy. Check this out…

Hebrews 12:1-3 | “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. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.“

Did you catch that part? “…the sin that so easily entangles.” Sin is simply when we do something wrong or when we are aiming for one outcome in our thoughts, character, relational interactions and we miss the mark—by a little or by a lot. It’s all the same. 

How many times do we try to think nicer thoughts about certain types of people—or a certain person, and when we encounter them, they make it challenging. We didn’t cuss them out, but we thought one of those savory ‘that’s why your…’ thoughts about them. We ain’t kill ‘em like we could’ve, but we didn’t love them like we should have either. Tangled. 

What about when you’re in a relationship and you gave your word to be committed to the other person. One day, you’re not seeing eye to eye about a certain thing. They hurt your feelings. Then _____ texts you out the blue—or likes/favs one of your social media posts. You don’t go as far as meeting up with them at a hotel, motel, or a Holiday Inn, but you let the conversation go beyond a salutation or your mind drifted and you went back to that one time… yeah. Tangled AND tied. 

THE MARATHON CONTINUES

“Life ain’t a track meet (no) It’s a marathon.”

— O’Shea Jackson

All of us are on our way somewhere in this life we live. Along the way there are short distance destinations and then there are the longer term objectives we’re all trying to reach. Dreams we want to fulfill. Purpose to live up to. Life is long distance. 

Me, myself, personally? I don’t see myself running an actual marathon. Life is marathon enough for me. If I’ve got 23 miles to go to get somewhere, I’m driving. But no matter the distance, when you run (physically), it’s helpful not to have things in your way and you want your legs and arms to be free. You need that freedom for your stride and for your pace. 

Imagine a marathon, or even a 5k, with hurdles set up along the road lol …that just sounds stupid and it’s hilarious for me to even think about. Like… why? Well that’s how some of us look when we don’t clear obvious tripping hazards out of our own paths. Things we don’t need to be watching, or eating, or drinking. People we shouldn’t allow into our social space—or personal space. 

These are the things that hinder us. We need to throw them off—or more literally, put them away; lay them aside; move them over to da leff to da leff.

VENERABLE vs VULNERABLE

Have you every participated in a potato sack race before? Or a better example might be a three legged race. In a three legged race, racers are paired with another person for the competition. Two able-bodied racers will have four legs, so their inside legs get tied together… now they have three legs. 

The same thing used to be done to contracted prison laborers (read: slaves). Chain them together and it’s harder for them to get away. Running while tied or entangled is a lot harder than running solo and free. Being entangled makes you more vulnerable to attack and susceptible to tripping over the hinderances that we didn’t move out the way. 

Our venerability is tied to our freedom from entanglements. People are not entanglements. The sinful desires inside of us are what cause us to be entangled—with the sin. We do not get into entanglements with people. We do, however, sometimes use people as venues to engage in our easy entanglements. It may take two to tango, but we can get entangled all by ourselves!

Entanglements are easy to get into, but it can be hard to get out. Society will give us a plethora of solutions on how to detangle…or in many cases, to just appease our unrighteous desires and make a lifestyle out of them. There’s only really one solution though. Jesus. 

Jesus is the answer. We get to throw our hinderances and entanglements off of ourselves and onto Him. We have Him to look towards, when our faith feels like it is fleeting. We are able to consider what He endured and that should give us that extra we need to keep pushing, to keep running… to finish our race.

Don’t let your own entanglements hold you back.