Sin is like a bucket of chicken

While at a girls weekend recently, I went to my best friend's church and her pastor gave a great analogy about sin.

He said it's like going for a run carrying a bucket of chicken. You're trying to eat what you enjoy, but it's hampering your run. It's not good for you, it's difficult to do, it looks silly to those passing by. That chicken is holding you back.

So put it down. Put it down and run the race.

I thought about that picture for a minute, and it truly does look silly. I thought, "Put the chicken down and you can come back and eat it later. Focus on what you're doing."

But, how many times have I come back from a run and wanted to eat something greasy like fried chicken?

Never.

(OK, I don't run all that often either, but still, I know enough that I wouldn't want fried chicken afterward.)

That makes even more sense when you compare it to sin in our lives. We think we want something and that it's delicious and we cling to it. But if we just put it down and run the race of this life, we will soon find that we don't even want that yucky sin anymore. Suddenly it doesn't even appeal to us. We want something better, something healthy, something that is going to help us run even harder.

What bucket of chicken are you carrying? Do you realize how silly it is?

Put it down.

Run the race.

Let go of your sin, and leave it behind.