As I sat with the Lord at the end of 2025, I had to admit that life felt cluttered and full of distraction. Life is full. I am literally sitting in the season I once prayed for and yet there’s this quiet pressure to do more. It’s a heavy weight… one that has been impacting my run.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (CSB)
What’s interesting is how hindrance and sin are separated. Meaning that not everything that weighs us down is sinful. Sometimes our burdens are good things, like answered prayers, full lives, responsibilities and roles that we longed and petitioned for.
And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to increase and adding more, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?
To run unhindered is to live with clarity and discernment. To know the race set before you. To anchor your gaze on heavenly things.
This year is not about doing more for God, but staying at His feet. Clearing away what competes for our attention so we can remain faithful.
Reflection Questions:
What am I carrying that God never asked me to pick up?
What weight has become normal, but is shaping how I live?
What would it look like to run lighter this year?
This post is the starting line. In the weeks ahead, we’ll talk more about stewarding the season we’re in and tending the life God has already placed in our hands. So be sure to be on the lookout for new podcast episodes and resources.
Scripture is clear that spiritual warfare is real, and it does not primarily play out in dramatic moments. It happens quietly, internally, thought by thought. Paul reminds us in Ephesians that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces. The enemy rarely begins with overt rebellion. He begins with little lies. A thought here. An assumption there. A narrative repeated often enough that it starts to feel true. Over time, footholds become strongholds when those thoughts go unchallenged. A foothold might sound like, “This is just how I am.” A stronghold sounds like, “This will never change.” Both shape how we live.
Hebrews 12:1 calls us to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and then it tells us how. We run with endurance by fixing our eyes on Jesus. The race is not just about outward obedience. It is about where our focus rests. What we fix our minds on determines how we run. When our thinking is cluttered, we run distracted and weary. When our thinking is anchored in truth, we run lighter, freer, and with purpose.
Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground. Mark shows us His righteous anger as He looked around at hardened hearts with grief mixed in (Mark 3:5). Matthew lets us overhear His deep distress in Gethsemane when He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Over and over again, we see compassion move Him toward people, not away from them. If Jesus felt emotions without sinning, we need to stop labeling emotions themselves as the problem.
To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Steward It Well
And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to adding more and increase, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?
