Weigh Station

If you ever pay attention while in the car on the highway (you better be if you’re driving!), you’ll notice those areas on the side of the road that require large trucks to stop and weigh in. Large green signs that say, “Weigh Station”, usually identify these areas well in advance. The purpose of these weigh stations are to ensure our roads are not being compromised by a vehicle that is overweight. In the United States, the federal regulated maximum gross vehicle weight that a truck can carry on the highway is 80,000 lbs. For comparison, the average weight of a cow is about 1,200 lbs, so that’s 66.67 cows. Since I love Chick-Fil-A, let’s round up to 67 cows so we don’t have to imagine 2/3rds of a cow. The point is…that’s a lot of weight! If a truck is found to be carrying over the allotted amount of weight, they are forced to shut down their operations and sit and wait for another truck to arrive to balance it out. A good truck driver will know their weight limitations, and so should we.

While it is good for us to know the weight capacity of our smaller vehicles, that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s also good for us to know how much we weigh (or maybe not?) to balance our health, but that’s not what I mean either. Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “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 the perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

In our daily lives, we get busy and like to take on more than we should. If you’re not careful, it will add up and become a heavy burden of unnecessary baggage. As it says in Hebrews, we have to offload what isn’t producing value for God’s Kingdom. Remember that Matthew 11:30 says, God’s “yoke is easy” and His “burden is light.” Like a good truck driver, we should know our limitations and take on the lighter load of following Jesus. The ways of the world will weigh you down, but Jesus can lift you up.

-Jacob

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