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| Knitting a basketweave hat! |
I recently taught myself how to knit, with the help of
videos, books, and a few friends. I ultimately want to make a certain kind of
sweater and I can only find knitting patterns for that sweater. Knitting makes
a different kind of fabric and would open up more projects for me.
However, in
order to start knitting, I had to stop crocheting (at least for a little
while). To fully learn and grown in my new skill, I had to set aside other
habits. While there was nothing wrong with crocheting, I can’t crochet and knit
at the same time, so one had to be put down while I took up the other.
It seems that we often try to do two things at the same
time, even though they are mutually exclusive. We harbor longing for change,
but we do not set aside harmful habits or take up helpful ones. We try to fit
complacency and courage into the same space at the same time. We like the idea
of something new, but we don’t want to put the energy or time or thought into
how it might come about.
The only way to truly change, to embrace a new way of being,
is to set aside the thing(s) that cannot continue to happen at the same time.
As we enter in the season of holidays, apocalyptic scripture readings, donation
requests, and thoughts of a new year, let us remember that God promises to make
“all things new” which is NOT the same as “all new things”. How do we lean into
the renewal work of the Holy Spirit in this busy time? What are we being called
to set aside, so that we might take up something new, grown in a new way, or be
led down a new path?
Comments
(It's no surprise to me that knitting would inspire it.)