Change 6 – You’re Not A Label

ByJim Stephens

Reading: Luke 5:36-39

36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be torn, and the patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The new wine would burst the old skins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be put into new wineskins. 39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. ‘The old is better,’ they say.” (Luke 5:36-39 NLT)

The science of marketing has put us into five distinct categories: Innovators, Early adopters, Early majority, Late majority, or Laggards! I’ve got my own set of characteristics for how we respond to change: Initiators, Accepters, Ignorers, Reacters, and Resisters.

The fact is, each of those characteristics are in all of us. Here are some things that are becoming clearer to me as I live and learn.

  1. We can’t label each other with a single characteristic. We’re more complicated than that! Each of us is learning and growing and developing. We’re learning from experiences, from each other, and from the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. So don’t be quick to label!
  2. We change with age. I’m less interested in going and doing something crazy than I used to be (as a young man in my 60’s)! Now I’m likely to prefer sitting by the fire reading a book or watching my favorite Overlander channel on YouTube. (Although recently my wife Jean, my dog Jake, and I went out to the desert and drove miles of dirt roads in new-fallen snow in the dark of night.) Just to stave off old age, I guess!
  3. Different is good. Don’t try to make yourself or anyone else fit in a little box, and don’t only hang with people who are just like you! We need to be exposed to each point of view to keep things healthy and on track!

You’re more than a label! Each of us is learning and growing in our relationships with other learning and growing people. Each of us is learning from our successes and learning a lot more from our mistakes! So let’s relax a little and enjoy the journey. It can be an adventure or and ordeal. It’s pretty much up to us!

Prayer:

Father, Thanks for making us different and mixing us together in life relationships. May we be slower to categorize ourselves and each other. May we be quick to embrace those who respond differently than we do (now)! Keep us growing and changing and learning and maturing. In Jesus’ Name!