New Wine In Old Wineskins

It's almost two weeks into the new year, how many resolutions do you think are still going? How many have you already thrown away?

Last night at Drink Deep (our Sr. High meeting) we talked about this in a broader sense and how following Jesus is similar. Too often people get fired up right away then seem to dwindle, like we do with resolutions. The reason is a story Jesus told in Luke 5, new wine in old wineskins.

The basic moral of the story is you can't fit something new into your old life. The reason so many people give up on their new year's resolutions is they don't change their life around the resolution. They want to lose weight, but they don't want to make the time to exercise, give up the foods they like, or really change any of their habits at all.

It's the same with Jesus. Many times people are introduced to Jesus and they think He's great, but instead of following Him they try to fit Him into their old life. They go back home and hang out with the same friends, do the same things, watch the same movies, visit the same websites, whatever it is, and somewhere along the way Jesus gets squeezed out. If you really want to know Jesus and have Him be a part of your life, your life needs to change to fit Him in. It's kind of like AA, when someone wants to give up drinking, they don't go back to the old bar with the old friends at the old happy hour.

So whatever your resolution is, holy or just plain silly, if you want to keep it, don't worry about the resolution so much. Worry about the life you're trying to fit that resolution into. Maybe some changes need to be made...

T