Thoroughly new

Today is the 21st day of the New Year and already many of our New Year’s Resolutions are ancient history.

Why did we fail? An answer may be found in today’s Gospel (Mark 2:18-22):

No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

Many if not all of the resolutions we make at New Year’s (or at other times during the year) fail because they are simply patches that disrupt the fabric of our lives, perhaps even more than they “fix” it.

What we need to do is let Christ make all things new: inside and outside, from top to bottom.

A “Jesus patch” is not enough: we must let Christ continually renew the entire fabric of our lives.

Likewise, being “filled with Spirit” – the “new wine” of Christ – will not be effective unless we let the Spirit of God renew us thoroughly.

Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Lord Jesus. Make all things new. Make me new, inside and out.