When we are led from our brokenness into new life, there are dynamic and fresh possibilities that may seem foreign to ourselves (at least) and to others. As we grow in faith and follow Christ in all circumstances, some folks may look at us and say: Wow, I never saw you do that (or heard you say that) before!!!! We may even doubt the reality of transformation ourselves! We say...Is this really happening? I don't even recognize myself!

I recall Jesus' comment about new life...

Matthew 9:15-17

"No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

I think about my mind, my body, my personality and the behavior I exhibit as the fabric or skin of my being. As I pray in and with Christ, his joyfilled love flows and begins to spill through the landscape of everything that I bring to the experience. Transformation begins to occur. Faith invites me to set aside rigid habits or erroneous perceptions of what is possible (old skin) and embrace the fresh possibilities that emerge and give new direction (new skin).

Ah...but it is so human to focus upon what we know or what we have determined to be the ways things have always been and must always be. We dip the tip of our tongue into the wine of new life and then try to contain it in old attitudes.

When you pray, sing, listen or receive communion this week, allow yourself to envision the fabric of your life as a new container for whatever God bestows. Be stretched ...be made new....so that the YOU being formed in Christ may be preserved!