New Wineskins

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We defend ourselves with descriptions and tame the world by generalizing.”― Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

Half full.
Half empty.
Overflowing.
The contents of the glass, the cup, the container, the wineskins.
How we measure, bucket, count, describe.
Circumstances.
Relationships.
Self.
The world.
Our thoughts, perspective, biases, assumptions, experience, judgments.
We would rather have the contents change than the container that holds it all together.
If the cup changes, transforms, grows, dies to become new, space is also created for new things to be poured into the cup, to be held.
How can I change to hold new things? To see differently. To count less. To enjoy more wherever I’m at on the journey.
For me, that’s what Lent is.
Rending, clarifying, renewing.
Not a day, but a season, the long game.
All found in the desert of contemplation, mirror looking rather than finger pointing. Laying down the old to pick up the new.
To not demand the world to change.
But to ask kindly and with compassion for me to change where needed and ask God to help make it happen.
The stuff of letting go, transition, thresholds, transformation.
Heavy and light at the same time.
And we are never ever asked to do it alone.
That really is the good news.
Imperfect, fumbling, tripping, picking up again, with joy and grace woven through and always loved.
Old wineskins, old wine.
New wineskins, new wine.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” – Luke 5:37-39 NKJV