And who would patch an old garment with unshrunk cloth? For the new patch shrinks and pulls away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger hole than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine needs new wineskins. Mark 2:21-22 NLT

Often in my walk, God will place me in circumstances that mirror past circumstances, to show where growth has happened or offer opportunities for something new.

This happened recently. My laptop of 4 years and I have had a hard go of things. I had to send it for for extensive repairs over the past few years; and last year my hard drive completely fried. We’ve recently had a long process of me trying to add programs to help my productivity, and laptop deciding that it will not cooperate, or will in the most minimal sense of the word.

After a few too many close calls, I decided to get a new laptop. As I began the slow process of setting up my new laptop, I was reminded of the time when I had to reprogram my former laptop when its hard drive fried. Since I had to “start over” in many regards, I wanted to set my laptop up with the faster upgrades of the software I’d come to know and love. Long story short, it wasn’t possible at the time for the software upgrades, the best I could do was replace what was running before my hard-drive fried. The upgrades would have resulted in slower operation of the laptop and frequent crashes, as the operating system was not powerful enough to run the upgrades smoothly.

Back to the present day, after the slow process of setting up my laptop, when the time came for the installation of my program software, I was pleased to find out the my new laptop’s operating system was much better equipped to run my desired graphic programs, and I was able to install the software upgrades that I hadn’t been able to do with my former laptop!

I was reminded of the passage in Mark that I cited at the beginning of this post. In many ways my software and computer are my wine and wineskins. As much as I tried to upgrade my former computer, it wasn’t possible, it would “burst”. In order for the upgrade to happen, I needed a new wineskin.

This parable also speaks to how I see my current life as an off-campus Campus Minister. In some ways, the learning and teachings I’ve received needed to happen while I was not on campus, in order for transformation to happen. If these lessons had been crammed in amidst my chaotic schedule, I would burst before true transformation. The distance from campus needed to happen to allow God’s work of healing and grace, so that my transformation will be testimony of His great work.