Insanity

Mark 2:21-22 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins.”


Did you ever have a pet solution to a repeating problem? Certain issues in my marriage with Marsha were predictable in their recurrence. In those limited arenas of our marriage we both held to our pet solutions. If you consider each situation when it comes up a a new problem, we were trying to fix old problems with old solutions. I guess that doesn't exactly match the gospel. Linking todays issues with yesterday however is a problem. Today must be dealt with today and we need a today solution to a today problem. Repeating the same old solution that didn't work before is one definition of insanity.

I know in my case that it was the work of the Holy Spirit that led Marsha and I away from pet solutions to Godly solutions. Our lives changed rapidly when we learned to deal with today's problem with today's solutions and particularly allowing our lives to be led by the Holy Spirit.

It doesn't matter wether we're talking about our individual lives, our relationships, or our churches we need to face today's problems with todays solutions guided by the Holy Spirit. Other options are just insanity.