“And 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)
It’s one of scriptures most vivid metaphors and applies to so many situations.
Don’t put new wine in old wineskins or you’re going to have a big mess.
New wine ferments, produces gas that fills the wineskin that then is stretched.
The new wineskin, made of leather or an animal belly, is flexible and stretches fine.
Old wineskins don’t adapt, though, and most often rupture because of the pressure for change.
We see this dynamic played out in all sorts of ways in life.
A manager comes into the workplace with new ideas and long-time employees — biding their time until retirement — might resist the call to adapt.
A principal tries to persuade students and faculty to change the classroom culture to promote learning and not simply emotional survival, yet the principal’s initiatives prompt a blow-up of conflicts rather than a coalition for improvement.
It happens in families, too, when a remarriage occurs and a blended family deteriorates into a powder keg of a new parent seeking to provide disciplinary consequences for previously unrestrained children.
The examples could go on and on but the point is clear, both involving the way of faith and just everyday life.
In the church, new ideas for enhancing ministry impact are sometimes seen as threats by those who are set in their ways of doing this or doing that.
And those promoting the new ideas are sometimes seen as troublemakers who don’t understand “how life really is.”
Let’s resist the temptation to criticize and reject ideas that are new and different than our own. It’s possible that an established strategy is still the best strategy but we must be willing to honestly and humbly evaluate if there’s a more effective way to serve at church or to succeed at work or to promote harmony in the home.
The best way to remain flexible, to not become a stiff, old wineskin, is to keep God’s love and Truth and power flowing through us day by day.
That way, we remain flexible and adaptable.
That way, we can embrace good ideas that are new to us and can help us enjoy new blessings and victories for the Kingdom.
This is SO much better than having a blow-up because we wouldn’t change.
As always, I love you
Martin
