Mark 2

New wine requires new wineskins.  A new way of thinking requires a new way of acting. Those are the tidbits that jumped out at me from today’s reading.

We touched on this topic last summer at our Classical Conversations parent practicum.  Learning how to teach classically requires us to re-think everything we do.  If we try to force classical education into a progressive education box, we will end up frustrated and confused.

Likewise, when we follow Jesus, we end up frustrated and confused if we try to squeeze Him into a “religion” box.  We simply cannot go back to the way we were before we knew Him.  We need a new way of living to reflect our new mind-set.

I’m struggling with this concept as it pertains to health and anxiety issues.  The Bible teaches that by His stripes, I am already healed.  Then why am I not healed?  Why am I suddenly facing the Fibromyalgia Monster?

What does it look like to have a new wineskin when facing something like this?  Prosperity preachers would tell me that I need to have more faith.  Yet the Lord himself is the one who gives out faith, so how can I get more of what I have not yet been given?

The Fibromyalgia Monster crept up on me without me even realizing it.  Each day, the pain would get slightly worse, usually in the background.  There is a place in between my shoulder blades and near my lower back that aches almost all the time.  I realized today that I have been slowly building up so much pain that I don’t even remember what it feels like to NOT have pain.  It wakes me up at night…my neck hurts, or my back hurts, or my shoulder hurts, or my leg hurts.  Now that I know to pay attention to it, I realize that last night alone I woke up at least four times due to pain.

Now I find myself struggling to change my outlook — my wineskin, if you will — to one that embraces exercise, sleep, and pain medicine.  I don’t even like to take Tylenol, sleep is something I haven’t really had since I had a baby twelve years ago, and I’m “allergic” to exercise.  I am the last person I take care of in our family.  With all our homeschooling activities, how in the world will I ever fit in yoga AND get enough sleep?  Something will have to give; my outlook has to change, or else my wineskin will burst for sure!

Lord, please help me find a new wineskin to reflect these changes you’ve brought into my life!