Set In Our Ways
I have patched up many jeans in my day. Remember those iron on patches? All you had to do was make sure the jeans to be repaired were clean. Have a hot iron. Warm up the space to be repaired. Then place the patch in the right spot. Iron with hot iron. And the patch would stick. Of course, it looked like a patch but at least your jeans were repaired.
But as we all quickly learned the edges of the patch would start to lift and pull away. And with multiple washings the peeling away would get worse. So, I would try a patch on the outside and the inside. Although the middle stuck well the edges still peeled. So, then I would sit down with needle and thread and stitch it all together. What happened then the stitching would start to pull away. The Bible was right. You cannot put a new patch on an old pair of jeans or in the words of the Bible, a wine skin.
What about you? Getting older? Patching up our lives gets tougher and tougher. The old ways of patching up problems no longer seems to work. Sometimes the patches we try to use just keep peeling up on the edges. Why? Because God’s Word is made new every day. It is not to be put into old wineskins. Rather, we need to learn how to change. We cannot stay who we are. To just be in the middle and noncommittal is not safe or comfortable. You will begin to discover there are too many holes to patch up. Get committed and suddenly you will find you do not need patches, only Jesus. Allow yourself to be vulnerable by loving unconditionally. The whole point of the Gospels. The reason we believe and trust in Jesus.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen