Thursday, December 17, 2009

Giving up the Old Stuff - December 17, 2009

Good Thursday morning! Tonight some layabouts will be in my house. Yup, we plan to layabout watching Christmas movies and eating a little Christmas cheer. We know of course that Christmas cheer in whatever form, chocolate chip cookies included, doesn't cause the waistline to expand as other forms of cheer might. :-) May it never end!

Never end... I wonder about that this morning. Last night, I called to end a subscription that I had begun many years ago. Back in the day, we hit the road for weeks at a time and traveled through some sparsely populated areas. The subscription to satellite radio made sense at the time and we/I used it a lot. This morning, I had to wonder how many other things I have been clinging to from the old days. I do enjoy the service in my truck still, but I don't drive more than across town very often these days. The cost to renew was more than $500 for my two-year plan. Don't use it much, costs a lot, seems like a straightforward decision. Yet I fought with it for weeks.

Old things can cling to us; that is why Paul encouraged us to cast off the weights that slow us down in our personal race for Christ. When the race changes for each of us, God may be calling us to go more slowly up a tough hill on our course or he may be calling us to speed it up, but in either case we might need to shed some old weight. That weight may be old habits, subscriptions, credit cards, friends who will not believe (we're still allowed to pray for them!), employers, possessions, and many other things. Giving something up from the old life may be difficult, but at the same time it may be necessary or even vital to our effort in Christ.

Take time to listen to a bit of Christmas praise music today, and grab some of that Christmas cheer too! :-)


Bucky

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