Pastor’s Message for June 2024

No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

-Luke 5:37-38

Dear Friends,

     Ryan had a pair of pajamas that were his very favorite ones. They had polar bears printed all over them. He just loved those polar bear jammies. He would wear them all day if he could have. He would go looking for them all over the house, emptying baskets of clothes until he’d find them. Then he would bring them to us to have us help him put them on for him. He wore them constantly. They were his very favorite pair of jammies. You can probably guess what happened. Eventually, the polar bear jammies wore out. We had to hide the polar bear jammies. (We couldn’t find it within ourselves to get rid of them.) Sometimes Ryan would go looking for those polar bear jammies, emptying clothes baskets in an attempt to find them and wear them once more. He had to settle for the new jammies we bought for him, but nothing would ever replace those wonderful polar bear jammies.

     I wonder how often I cling to things long after I should give them up? What are the things in my life that I’ve outgrown? What needs replaced with something that fits better at this point in my life? What have I held on to for too long? I’d like to say I’m good at weeding out those things in my life for which I no longer have room, but honestly, I tend to collect and keep things for far too long. The problem is that when I cling to something that I no longer need, or which no longer fits, I have no room for the new things that I need. I still have pants that are far too tight that I think I’ll someday be able to fit into again. In the same way, I still have ways that I do things that no longer work, but I keep doing them the same way because it’s comfortable and convenient.

I think we all have our own pair of polar bear jammies. They no longer fit, but we keep them around for far too long. The question is, what are the things we hold on to that are keeping us from receiving the new things God has in store for us?

God loves you, and so do I,
Pastor Jim