Free to Run the Race. Gary V. Ventimiglia

Free to Run the Race describes the living out of our life in Christ (Hebrews 12:1). It speaks of running «with endurance the race that is set before us.» This can be done by fixing our «eyes on Jesus.» «Undoing the Burden of Parental Disregard,» speaks to a specific encumbrance that weighs the runner down making it harder to keep focus and finish the race. The burden is called «parental disregard.» It is not being allowed to «be oneself,» to pursue one's inner direction, or natural proclivity in one's life. It is the experience of developmental woundedness that says being oneself in temperament, aptitudes, natural talents, and the expressing of this is prohibited. Prov 22:6 says, «train up a child according to his own way.» The burden of parental disregard is the emotional pain in living out an identity that is not based on any expression of one's natural «way(s)» or bent(s). This makes the development of trust in a heavenly Father (parent) difficult. The relieving of this burden takes a ruthlessly honest focus on this woundedness and its working out its implications honestly that allows a more truthful understanding of God's love for our lives.