Grant Batchelder

(Hebrews 10:32–39)

Dear friends in Christ,

Hebrews was written to people who had already paid a price for their faith. They had endured public shame. Some had lost property. Some had stood beside those who were imprisoned. The author reminds them of this not to glorify suffering, but to steady them. “Do not abandon that confidence of yours.” “We are not among those who shrink back.”

The pressure they faced was real, but it was not always dramatic. It looked like loss. It looked like inconvenience. It looked like being misunderstood. It looked like deciding whether following Christ was still worth the cost.

This week the Church remembers Perpetua, a young woman imprisoned in Carthage in the third century. When her father pleaded with her to renounce Christ, she answered simply, “I cannot be called anything other than what I am.” She did not argue or dramatize. She named her identity.

Most of us will never face an arena. But Hebrews is not written only for arenas. It is written for ordinary endurance. It is written for moments when faith rubs against comfort, reputation, security, and habit. It asks whether we will shrink back in small ways.

Last Sunday, in the 20s & 30s group, I invited the group to carry a simple question throughout the week: Can I do without this? Can I do without this habit? This purchase? This distraction? This need to be right? Could I give this up for Christ?

Lent trains us in this question. We practice letting go of small things, not because they are evil, but because they hold us more tightly than we realize. We release something now so that, if a greater surrender is ever asked of us, we are not startled by the cost.

Shrinking back rarely looks dramatic. It often looks like protecting something else first. Perpetua’s clarity may have been forged in prison, but it was formed long before that moment.

If something were taken away, or if you were asked to lay something down, would you still know who you are?

In Christ,
—Grant