New Year, Same Ol' You

No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good' -Luke 5:36-39

Happy New Year!

New Years are popular for resolutions. Most of us have a desire to be smarter, stronger, faster, bolder.... just better than before. The problem is, by February, most of us have fallen off the bandwagon. The reason is simple. We're trying to pour new wine into old wineskins. We're still us, the imperfect beings who've stumbled through every year before, stumbling right into this year too. Do you know what happens to old wineskins with new wine? They explode. New wine is generating gases that will expand any leather container it's inside. The old wineskin has stretched to accommodate the wine it held before and has hardened, making it impossible to expand any further. If you have new wine, you need a flexible new wineskin.

I find new meanings or deeper insights into Bible verses nearly every time I read them, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I find new insights into my testimonial experience too. When I was a pre-teen, I desired to know how to be as perfect as possible but found it impossible to follow or remember all the commands and guidelines listed in the Old Testament. I prayed to God for something I could remember throughout my life, so that no matter what I'd know I was doing the right thing. I heard the whisper of a single word: love.

What I've come to realize is God was telling me something more: Before I change your heart, nothing you do will be right.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, a but have not love, I gain nothing. - 1 Corinthians 13

So, you have health, career, relationship, organization, inner peace goals. That's honorable to be willing to better yourself. It may have even become unavoidable that you need to change your life. Understand this: that goal will fail if you don't change internally. You shaped your life around your heart, so have you invited God to change your heart to reflect where your life will now go? You need a new heart if you want a new life, or your new life will explode from the inflexibility of your old heart.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43:18-19

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - Ephesians 4:22-24

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! - Galatians 4:9-10

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. - Ezekiel 36:26

Invite God into your journey, seek a change of heart, try to understand why your heart wouldn't let you make those needed improvements before now. We fail time and time again to be good and perfect, but we are nothing without God renewing our heart.

I know this all sounds vague. You need to know how to put this change of heart into practice. Of course, as expected, you need to speak with God and focus on your goals and how you want God to be a part of the process, your reasons for the goals, and your need for a renewal of Spirit.

In order to have a change of heart, you need to change your patterns of thought and the foundation for your current behaviors. This can be different for everyone. Let me give you an example.

I've wanted to run more for years. My patterns of thought, however, were hindering my progress. I wanted comfort after I came home from work, I'd tell myself I was tired after a long day, and I'd fall into a million "reasons" why I didn't need or want to run that day. To complicate things, I'd try to count calories and lump that together with running as part of my health goals. I'd get obsessed with calorie counting, get tired from low calories added to exercise, and burn out from trying to do it all on top of my normal responsibilities. I was used to coming home and sitting down, and nothing would get in the way of breaking my old patterns.

Last year, I decided to change my focus. I'd been feeling unhealthy and uncomfortable. My patterns of thought started up as I laced my shoes. I want to sit and read, I'm tired, I should spend time with the family, etc. etc. I couldn't fight the thoughts. If I shot one down, another would pop up. I listened to the excuses but continued to lace them up. I whined inside but still put in my earbuds. I felt and thought everything and paid attention to every bit of it... and went out and did it anyway. Like a bully that's being ignored, the thoughts would sometimes become bored and subside. Sometimes, they pop back up and demand my attention. As far as calorie counting, I voted against it. I'm not focusing on losing weight but being healthier, stronger, and happier. I'll love my body as the temple God says it is. I'll love myself as God loves me. I'll love my family by being an example for them and giving them a reason to join me. More, healthier calories means more energy to run faster. When you exercise, you feel deeply the bad food or the eating too much, so that helped somewhat. Either way, I chose love instead of punishment. My heart changed to see running as a meditation and form of joy. I feel alive and free.

Sometimes, I eat badly for a few weeks or put off running. That's okay. I'm gentle with myself. My soul wasn't meant for strict, unrelenting things but for cycles and undulating waves. I sense God in this change. I speak to Him on my runs.

Your journey may be different. Set goals, but remember, for new wine, you need a new wineskin.