Always New

Mark 2:18-22

No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins. (Mark 2:22)

ONE OF THE MOST COMMON and predictable cycles in Christian history is for dynamic, Spirit-inspired movements to grow stiff and stale over time. One of the reasons for that phenomenon is our desire to preserve whatever God is doing. We want to create institutions, codify rules and structures, dissect the process, and make sure we maximize the opportunity God has given us. But our efforts are like pouring concrete into the river of life. We interrupt the flow. Many religious orders and denominations that began as powerful renewal movements have become crusty, unbending institutions that have lost their former glory. We get so stuck in what God has done that we miss what he is doing now.

Christians have a remarkable ability to fixate on the last thing God has taught them, the revelation that seemed so life-changing at the time. That’s why some people are still living in the moments right after their conversion, basking in a glow of insight that is no longer glowing. They are living in days gone by, missing the ways God has tried to lead them ever since.

What’s the solution? At any given moment of our lives, we need to look into the past to steward what God has done without trying to preserve it as it was. We also need to look into the future with the expectation that whatever God has done in our lives was perfect for that season but will surely grow and take new form over time, perhaps in unexpected ways. In other words, we need to live with new wineskins, always prepared to carry the freshness of the Spirit into the new situations of the future. God’s Spirit moves like the wind (John 3:8); salt and light are dynamic expressions of his power; and though his character never changes, his work is always new.

{Holy Spirit, you have invited me into the flow of your work. May I always flow with you, and may I keep the flow going in my corner of the world for the next generation. Let your Kingdom continue to come in fresh ways. Amen.