Simplify Your Life - Part Two

Aging, Faith, and the Things that Matter Most

Dear Reader:

Let’s pay a bit more attention to this verse from Hebrews. I hinted at its meaning in the post before this one—that it addresses what weighs us down. But this verse has something else to say. And to speak of it may appear to you as if I am meddling in your concerns and affairs.

I am not. I am disclosing yours, mine, and ours. Our sins—as Thomas Cranmer, the Anglican reformer, put it, “our manifold sins and wickedness”. So, read this essay with this warning in mind, and a request: if it gets personal, don’t shoot the messenger.

And please, please, please, read the PS below. Perhaps at another time. But it is an essential part of what it means to simplify your life with sin involved.

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“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrew 12:1)

Release or Confess

One of the central lessons of living in the Fly Away Zone is learning the difference between what must be confessed (sin) and what must simply be released (weights/burdens).

Hebrews (above) tells us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely.” The wisdom of the passage is that it separates the two. Some things are weights. Others are sins. Some are burdensome. And some will kill you. (In the Greek, they are even different words.)

And maturity requires knowing the difference.

A weight slows you down.
A sin pulls you away.
A weight is heavy.
A sin is deadly.

Yet, we often reverse the categories.

We tend to treat weights too seriously and sins too casually. We are often intolerant of our shortcomings and bad habits, but overly easy on ourselves when it comes to our sins and inequities.

We feel guilty about being tired, overwhelmed, or unable to carry everything we once carried. “I always take on too much!” Meanwhile, we easily tolerate patterns and behaviors that Scripture plainly calls sinful. We try to “manage” our sins rather than repent of them. “Opps, I guess I had too much to drink last night.”

• Gossip is “sharing.”

• Bitterness is “discernment.”

• Greed is “success.”

• “Success” becomes pride.

• Dishonesty becomes “what everybody does.”

• Excessive drinking becomes “just how I unwind.”

• Unforgiveness becomes “setting boundaries.”

Our sin survives by disguise.

Burdens and Sins

Moses understood something about this near the end of his life. As he entered his own Fly Away Zone, he did not simply lighten his load. He also clarified his soul. The older Moses became, the more direct he was about obedience, holiness, and faithfulness to God.

If you read his story closely, he delegated responsibilities. He relinquished leadership. He accepted his limits.

But he also called Israel away from idolatry, rebellion, and compromise. Those were sins.

He understood that some aspects of our lives should be set down because they are too heavy, while other things must be abandoned because they are wrong.

Why Does This Matter?

As we age, we often become more aware of our limitations. Energy changes. Time shortens. The race becomes less about accumulation and more about clarity. The Fly Away Zone invites us to travel lighter, but also cleaner. We can be lightened from unnecessary burdens, as Hebrews suggests.

But also, we should be more honest about our tolerated sin.

Not everything in your life needs to be carried forward.
And not everything in your life should be carried forward.

So ask yourself honestly: What sin am I still trying to manage instead of surrender?

Weights require discernment.
Sins require repentance.

Lay aside the weight.
Repent and confess the sin.

And keep moving toward home.

Grace and peace,

David Roseberry ☩
The Anglican

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🚩Important to Read

PS: In the back of my mind, I can almost hear older and wiser Christian writers, theologians, pastors, and saints warning me not to make repentance and confession of sin sound easier than it is. They would remind both you and me that sin is not merely a bad habit to overcome or an unhealthy pattern to outgrow.

It is far deeper than that.

Scripture tells us sin is something rooted within us—twisted desires, disordered loves, self-centered instincts, pride, fear, resentment, lust, greed, envy, bitterness, and rebellion against God.

Sin hides itself.
It adapts itself.
It justifies itself.

It often survives beneath outwardly respectable behavior. Remember, as I said above, sin often survives in a disguise.

The prophet Jeremiah writes: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Saint Paul speaks with astonishing honesty even late in his spiritual life:
“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19)

And the older saints of the Church repeatedly warned that age alone does not produce holiness. Time can deepen virtue, but it can also deepen selfishness, grievance, fear, rigidity, and pride if the heart is not continually surrendered to Christ.

Augustine wrote that the human heart is “curved inward upon itself.”
Martin Luther described the Christian life as one of continual repentance.
John Calvin warned that the human heart is “a perpetual factory of idols.”
Thomas Cranmer’s liturgy teaches us to confess that “there is no health in us” apart from God’s mercy and grace.

All of them are making the same point: We do not slowly drift toward God naturally.

We need grace.
We need repentance.
We need the Holy Spirit.
We need Christ Himself.

That is especially true in the Fly Away Zone.

Aging has a way of exposing what was always there beneath the surface. Weakness strips away illusion.
Loss reveals attachment.
Fear reveals trust.
The diminishment of strength often uncovers the true condition of the soul.

But this is precisely where the Gospel becomes such good news.

Christianity does not merely tell older people to “try harder” to become peaceful, gracious, wise, or holy. The Gospel announces that Christ came to save sinners, to forgive what we cannot undo, to transform what we cannot heal ourselves, and to prepare us for eternal life through His mercy.

The goal of aging faithfully is not pretending we have become spiritually impressive. It is learning, more deeply and honestly over time, how much we need grace.

D.

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The Anglican is the Substack newsletter for LeaderWorks, where I share insights, encouragement, and practical tools for clergy and lay Christians. I’m also an author of over a dozen books available on Amazon.

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