Why people don’t change …

I like printed books.

I like the texture of the different papers, the design of the covers, the feel of the book in my hands.

So I want a Kindle.

Huh?!

What could be more different to a book reader than an e-reader?

Well, I’m a voracious reader. Having a Kindle (or similar device) will benefit my reading in multiple ways … it will reduce the cost of each book by more than half, there is no need for room to store a collection of books, and you can carry your entire library with you wherever you go in a single device.

Making such a change will benefit me.

You would think people would be willing to change when there is real, direct benefit for making change. But even the most profound of benefits often is not enough for some people to make real change.

A significant reason many people do not change their lives by starting in a new direction is because in order to succeed, they need to quit old things to start the new. And they are unwilling to quit the old for the new.

Such was the case of some who approached Jesus with pious pledges to follow Him anywhere. But following Jesus isn’t a matter of adding something new to the old, but quitting the old for something new. Read for yourself …

“When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.’ Another of his disciples said, ‘Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.’But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead,'” Matthew 8:18-22.

For one of these disciples, following Jesus would mean he would have to quit valuing things (such as the security of a home) in the manner he currently was doing. For the other, he would have to quit valuing relationships as they were. The old would have to change for change to occur.

We would prefer to mingle the old with the new. But Jesus doesn’t do things that way, as He says:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved,” Matthew 9:17.

The Apostle Paul approached the subject succinctly:

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!,” 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

Are you trying to hold on to a part of your old self? Your old life? Or are you ready to quit the old for something new?

Scotty