I opened a drawer this afternoon and discovered it jam-packed with out-of-date computer STUFF. There was a tangle of cables and mouses (mice). We got our first computer in the early 1980’s. It was a Radio Shack TRS-80 and had huge internal memory of four K. As I looked in that drawer I realized I could or should toss it all because it will never be useful again. But some of it still works in a primitive way like that fifty pound screen that takes up an entire desk. I will most likely keep it in the corner for another twenty years before I finally dispose of it.
Getting rid of old things can be very difficult. Even though we haven’t used them in years we think there is a chance we just might need them. Old habits are hard to break. Even when we realize they aren’t just filling up brain space but are actually harmful, we just don’t want to let them go. There is comfort in “this is the way I have always done this.”
When I read Romans 7 I wonder what “old man” things Paul was trying to get rid of. He said he did things he didn’t want to do and didn’t do the things he did want to do. Paul had been Saul, the perfect Pharisee. He lived by the letter of the law. He did not have to give up a life of carousing. So what was he talking about? Could it be that sometimes the Gospel seemed just too good to be true and he fell back into law-keeping? The Gospel is pretty amazing. No other religion in the world is so radical. It is difficult to quit trying to do it ourselves.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helen, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org