Off With The Old

All the Christmas decor is down and nestled in its garage bed to sleep until next time. The furniture is back where it belongs, and I have started my annual clean out of closets, cupboards, and drawers. Every January, a strong renesting instinct comes over me to
re-establish my external order. It is accompanied by a desire to attend myself to the Lord to also re-establish internal order. For the past several years, I have begun to pray during the Advent and Christmas season that the Lord would give me a word to help me focus on the coming year and direct me toward setting goals. In the past, the word has been hope, work, joy, peace, focus etc. The word for 2022 is “new.” I feel very strongly about this word and know that God will speak it over and over to me in various ways because He laid it on my heart. I have asked myself, is it because Jim and I find ourselves in a new season due to retirement? Is it because we have moved forward as the Lord directs our steps to find a new community of faith to worship and serve with? Probably these reasons and for many more that will present themselves. My word for 2022 certainly coincides with the direction of my writing as God reorganized the timing of this series to begin in the new year. So I begin today with the thought that newness begins with the purposeful intention of releasing old things I am hanging on to.

In the 1940s, a Swiss engineer was on a hunting trip in the mountains when he realized that tiny hooks of the cockleburs were stuck to his pants legs and in his dog’s fur. Having a curious mind, he wondered how these little nuisances attached themselves. Under the microscope, George De Mestral saw that the small burs had tiny hooks that caught things in their teeth- like surface and, to make the story short….velcro was invented. The word velcro comes from velour and crochet, meaning”velvet hook.” Velcro has impacted all our lives in many ways. If you have worn shores or any medical accessory, you know how convenient it is. And the sound it makes when we pull it apart is unmistakably identifiable. Though velcro is helpful technology, it can also be a pain if it gets attached to places it doesn’t belong and can be quite a nuisance to remove. You might wonder how this relates to my word for the year, but I have often described myself as the velcro Christian in my teaching.

By this, I mean often many things around me like cultural idealogy, my own intellect, media perspective, tradition and beliefs of friends and loved ones, past experiences, etc., have a way of sticking to my thinking and thus impacting my actions. I have shared that to remove the untruthful perspectives from my mind and heart is like pulling off the small burs that Mr. Mestral discovered attached to both he and his dog. It has to be intentional and purposeful. I have discovered that often when God has revealed truth that is new to me, it has trouble sticking because there is too much false junk stuck to the surface of my mind and, upon closer inspection, is often deeply embedded in places I would have never expected. Often experiences or words from others, especially the enemy, stick tight and are difficult to remove.

But God…. with His word and the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit, enables me to remove things that hinder my growth and intimacy with Christ. In January, I have practiced writing things down that troubled me in the last year and sealing them in an envelope. When I worked, I pinned the envelope to my workboard in front of my desk. Sometimes it is in my bible or in a desk drawer. First, it serves to remind me of the things I have released to the Lord that are sealed before Him and helps me discipline my thoughts to not entertain stuff.

Second, at the beginning of the following year, I open it and see how I let go. When I read the list, sometimes I smile because the troubling issues seem remote, even trivial in the light of a new year. But oh, then there are those things that continue to plague me and, sadly to say, make a list every year because unforgiveness and a good memory hold me captive, reminding me I am flesh and, yes, velcro. Ever notice it isn’t things like joy or optimism that stick as close as worry and frustration.? By the way, after I read the list, I destroy it.

These are natural tendencies because we live in a fallen world struggling to have our minds renewed by the spirit. But for us as followers of Christ, it is totally possible and attainable to experience joy and face the day with blessed expectation. That is why Paul instructed us “Not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:1-2). In order for God to bring me the new, I must release the old. I have to rid my velcro mind of the little burs of doubts and disappointment and travel through environments like the fellowship of other believers and the word of God and prayer, and even just dwell in the presence of God and let good stuff stick. This might mean guarding my ears against what conversation I attune myself to. It may mean changing subjects and having boundaries of what I speak about or read. I have to ask myself, why don’t I listen to more uplifting praise music and expose myself to more of the more straightforward side of life’s joys? What will it take in 2022 for me to experience the newness that God promises, that He alone can bring to my heart and soul?

This I know, I don’t need to do better, turn over a new leaf, and try harder faith with a list of rituals and rules. God has shown me I already have everything I need in Him. Only He can hide a painful past in folds of mercy. Only He can transform anger and malice into empathy and forgiveness. Only Christ can arrest worry and assure me of a bright new future because He alone has the power to deliver it. Not my family, not the economy, not my church, not the doctor, or the government. He brings newness because He is newness personified. He is hope in the flesh and the spirit for better. He changes might be into will be. He empowers maybe into can. Jesus takes all my Decembers and makes them as new as January and every minute in between. When I walk with Him, I am never stuck. I am in a move ahead lane that though it appears to be stop and go along the way, arrival is assured. He is the birth of all that is new, and He loves me so much; he attends the funeral of all the old along with me and holds my hand as I bid goodbye to both the things that hurt or hinder me.

Lord, help me keep my velcro side turned toward your face and your words. Let me, daily, pick off the lint of life that can keep me from attaching myself to the things that really count.

Welcome back to the vineyard! Come next time when the 5 o’clock worker looks at how false belief can be difficult to remove from the mind of the velcro Christian.