BY DAWN REED

My cellphone had been acting weird for a while. Everything was running slowly. I didn’t get much service, though my co-workers – with the same phone carrier and sitting right beside me – had no trouble at all. The sound for calls had not worked for a year and a half. Every single one had to be made on speaker. (Several millennials tried to figure it out with no luck.)

Typically, I chalk any trouble with my phone to operator error. There’s so much I don’t understand. Turning it off and back on was my go-to for months. It never made a difference.

I didn’t have the latest version of iPhone; I was several versions behind. My beloved found me the next upgrade for a penny. He even volunteered to take it to the cellphone store to get it switched over. Holy Moly! What a dear! He stopped by my workplace to pick up my sluggish cellphone and went to get it done. It was the sweetest thing.

My beloved had no clue all that was on my phone. He didn’t realize I hadn’t done my last update because I was over my storage limit. The nice lady at the cellphone store told him for me. She worked diligently to transfer everything to the new phone. It took two and a half hours. My beloved waited the entire time. He dropped it back off to me with instructions to delete all unnecessary data.

I had 16,223 pictures, over 700 notes, countless text messages, and bunches of unused apps running. All of them together were hindering the effectiveness of my cellphone. I was holding on to so much stuff I didn’t need, and it was holding me back. There were 100s of pictures of clouds, our dog asleep on the couch, recipes, and quotes I hadn’t looked at in ages. For my new phone to function properly, I was going to have to let some stuff go – to get rid of some unnecessary baggage.

I’ve been hanging on to lots of other stuff I don’t need. Purging my phone (and the new year) motivated me to clean out some closets. In one of them, I found a clown costume from the late 1990s, a child-sized kimono from Japan (vintage 1970s), an adult-sized bee costume (Sunday School emphasis mid-90s), a mummy costume (Trunk or Treat 2018), two Tooth Fairy gowns, two wigs and an old piñata.

Besides material things, we can also hold on to past mistakes, past hurts, unfulfilled dreams, losses, anger, bitterness, jealousy, or a host of other emotions. Hebrews 12:1 tells us, “…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.” As we go into 2026, are there things we need to throw off? Things that are hindering our peace, our hope, our growth? Is there sin that is keeping us rooted in place? As the writer said, “Let’s throw it off…and run with perseverance…” Not quitting but always going forward.

The “throwing off” can be a process, but God is faithful. He will see us through it. Oh, how I wish I could have snapped my fingers and cleared my phone instantly. That first evening, I spent three hours deleting 1,200 photos of dumb stuff. I may be hindered for a while yet.