Golf Shoes
“Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:17 (NIV)
I have a favorite pair of golf shoes, but they are extremely old. They were great until golf shoe construction changed. Today’s designs for golf shoes give more consideration to the need for waterproofing, they’re able to handle rough terrain, and they can be comfortable to wear both on and off the course. In other words, since the years when my favorite shoes were the standard golf shoes to possess, technology has advanced and construction has matured.
Of course, I’ve purchased golf shoes that are more recently designed, but I haven’t thrown away the old pair. I just have to manage them differently, given that I have more thoroughly constructed shoes now. I can only wear those old shoes sparingly. I can only wear the old shoes on certain golf courses, where there are certain conditions that are favorable to the old shoes.
That means my old shoes are worn less. They're worn very intentionally based upon what I know I’ll face when I leave the house. They are still valuable and useful to me, but I can't wear them anywhere—just on the courses that are best suited to them. The new shoes I bought, on the other hand, can be worn everywhere. No matter the surface, they are appropriate for it.
Here's my point. Everything you've been through is necessary. Everything you've experienced is instructive. Everything you’ve survived is revelatory. It's all preserved for the benefit of memory. It shapes you when you're making decisions, because it forces you to not forget what it cost you, how it hurt you, or the time it took from you.
These things are used only as frequently as your need to be reminded of the grace of God and the power that He has employed in your life to restore you and to turn you around. It’s not that you are giving loyalty to the pain, but you never forget it, because it reminds you that the only reason you survived the pain is because God's grace is amazing. You don't discard those “old shoes,” but you don't live as devoted to them. Why? Because Jesus has introduced you to “new shoes,” and it shows up in your world as a transformed mind, as a renewed heart, and a more mature spiritual discernment.
In other words, don’t despise the past—but don’t live in the past either. Recognize the value of your past as you move forward into the future.
Patch Mismatch
Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.”
Luke 5:36 (NKJV)
In this short parable of Jesus, if the garment He refers to is the way Israel thought about the kingdom and about God, and if the piece or patch represents the traditions and practices, the worship and the sacrifices, the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others—if these are our bridges to this parable—then Jesus is clear: the ministry He brings cannot be sewn to the garment of religion as they knew it, because it won’t match the old ways of doing faith. Jesus’ ministry does not match the old ways of practicing spirituality.
Here's Jesus’ message: His garment cannot have pieces cut out and then sewn onto the old thread-weak garment that ignored love for all humanity, where the law and its interpretation superseded a warrant for a simple, intimate relationship with God. His garment won’t work if sewn onto the garment of religious exclusion and marginalization.
Jesus’ new garment casts a wider net, and it includes “whosoever will.” It stands on the side of the oppressed and the marginalized. His garment cares about the hungry. His garment cares about the homeless. His garment is concerned about the incarcerated and the immigrant. His garment champions forgiveness and believes in human restoration. His garment warms with grace and blankets with mercy.
Trying to tear pieces of this and sew them to the garment that existed will tear that garment to pieces when it settles in and shrinks to true size. Should it even stay attached at all, it would only make obvious the mismatch at the places where the attempt was made.
What in your life are the thoughts and emotions that have carried you thus far? The hurts and scars that have shaped your perceptions and scripted your conversations? What have been your aims and ambitions, your judgments about life and people? What historically has framed your reference and shaped your desires?
Whatever these old garments have been, Jesus brings the new garment of His eternal vision for your life. Don’t try to patch your old garment with new cloth. Release your hold on and loyalty to the old, and surrender to the new garment Jesus has for you.
God Still Loves You
But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:8 (NIV)
When I'm standing in the thick and dense foliage of a wilderness where I can't find a pathway—meaning, when all my thoughts are streaming negative and everything I'm thinking is running into a dead end, and I'm out of answers, and I'm too tired to take another step, and every step causes me to cramp because I'm dehydrated of every positive thought, and I don't know in what direction to go because it all looks like endless blockage—when I get to that stage in any season I’m walking through, I always keep enough faith to believe that while everything around me is changing, there is one thing I know won't change: God still loves me.
When I'm standing in the thick and dense foliage of a wilderness where I can't find a pathway—meaning, when all my thoughts are streaming negative and everything I'm thinking is running into a dead end, and I'm out of answers, and I'm too tired to take another step, and every step causes me to cramp because I'm dehydrated of every positive thought, and I don't know in what direction to go because it all looks like endless blockage—when I get to that stage in any season I’m walking through, I always keep enough faith to believe that while everything around me is changing, there is one thing I know won't change: God still loves me.
No hardship, confusion, frustration, or setback is going to make me stop believing that God is stronger than my circumstances. God always shapes His will with our good in mind, unto His glory.
Whenever Israel was walking in total surrender and obedience, it was imaged by the fertility of the land, the health of the nation, protection against their enemies, and prosperity flowing in abundance. On the other hand, when Israel fell in open rebellion, you always knew it because there was decimation of the land, opening of the hedge for the enemy to penetrate, disease among the people, and poverty blanketing the nation. But here's what I want you to realize: in both circumstances, God loved Israel.
So please remember, when you're in that hard season, it doesn't mean God has stopped loving you. It means He is trying to move you to another level of faith. When you get to a place where all you have left is God, call on Him. He still loves you.
Dry Seasons
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)
In Isaiah 43, Israel has been through a tough, dry season of exile. In fact, this dry season was so depleting, it is pictured as a pathless progress through a hot, waterless desert. It was waking up every day to dry-mouthed dehydration, to constant struggle, to difficult movement that goes nowhere. Every day felt like an endless press, no advancement, no inner feeling of satisfaction.
Dry seasons feel like that, don't they?
These seasons are experienced in all facets of life. When we pursue our dreams that seem to stay perpetually distant, for example. Or in our relationships with one another, where relating to certain people is a constant uphill journey. Even in our own emotionality—where you're almost scared to massage a positive thought because every other time you've attempted to do so, that thought has been hijacked by an onslaught of negative thinking. These things are like going through a wilderness where there are no pathways, and they leave us emotionally dehydrated.
You don’t choose dry seasons; they choose you. They're like wildernesses with no water, journeys with no inner sense of satisfaction or fulfillment. And this text teaches us (some of us won't like it) that God, in fact, purposes dry seasons in our lives for spiritual development.
He does so because He knows the struggle has a contribution to make. He allows dry seasons to purge and to prune and to perfect and to progress and to grow and to mature us in areas that constant provision and easy access would’ve never been able to produce. In fact, had the road been too easy, had the foliage been cleared, had there been water along the pathway, our attention would have been distracted. Being dry-mouthed and thirsty causes us to center our devotion, and doing so causes us to then divorce distraction so that we can make the necessary pivots in areas of our lives that help us to shake hands with spiritual growth.
Many of us would not be where we are today if we had not had to navigate some dry seasons through rough wilderness. God strings these dry seasons along the journey of our lives to shape us, to mold us, and to conform us into the image of His Son.
Are you in a dry season of life right now? If so, rejoice in knowing that God is using it to work in your life!
Leave It All on the Track
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 (NIV)
I believe that we must take advantage of every opportunity God gives us. In every hour, every minute, every second of my life, I want everything He has for me! Do you?
Don’t you waste the intellect God has given you. Despite all of the educational obstacles and setbacks that may be in place right now, don’t bury your brain. God gave it to you, so seek every opportunity to maximize it and stretch it. Allow it to be challenged and tested. The same goes for your body, spirit, heart, and soul. Don’t bury them. Use them to full capacity.
I know that God has a future for you, but the path you take is contingent upon whether or not you take advantage of the opportunities you find along the way.
My brother, my sister, I don’t know what the Lord is nudging and prodding you to do, to become, to morph into, to sacrifice, to absorb, to consider, or to become convicted of. I simply don’t know that about your life. But I know this: don’t you bury the opportunities in this season you find yourself in. Don’t avoid them because you’re scared or because it’s going to necessitate change or because it will alter your human exchanges and relationships.
No, don’t you suppress any gift or talent or open door that God provides, because they are all a grace extended to you to become everything that God has creatively, eternally imagined for you.
You want to be able to come to the end of your life and say what Paul said: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.”
You know what Paul is saying? He is saying, “I left it all on the track. All my energy, all my zeal, all my effort and strength and resources and fervor. I ran that race with patience, looking unto Jesus, knowing He is the author and the finisher of my faith.”
That’s what I want you to be able to say: “I left it all on the track.” When you stand before God, I want you to be able to confess that you attempted to seize every opportunity that God blessed your life with.”
