Running on nostalgic fumes? It’s time to prayerfully move on! #TruthTuesdays
Recently I threw away my laptop’s charger cable. I’m sure you’re wondering why this is significant enough to note. Well, it had been out of commission for weeks before I could bring myself to depart with it. After purchasing a new, functioning one, I still held on to the broken charger.
I worked so hard to preserve that charger’s function. Taped it, patched it, propped it, wiggled it. I even squeezed out a few more uses before it eventually stopped working at all. As a matter of fact, it the charger started draining the laptop’s battery when I plugged it in.
So after weeks of charger-preservation shenanigans, I asked myself, “Why are you holding on to this broken thing?” I speculated that I was holding on because I was focused on the value it used to bring me. I reminisced over the many successful charges it once provided and the many journeys we had traveled together. But the truth of the matter is it no longer served me in that capacity.
Hypnotized by the Past
Recognizing my struggle with parting with a simple charger led me to contemplate an even deeper question, “Why do we hold on to things, people and situations that no longer bring us value?” I believe it’s probably for some of the same reasons that I held on to that faulty cable. We become hypnotized by nostalgic fumes, focusing on what used to be. We revel in joys that those things brought us at one time even when they no longer provide those things.
At various stages of life, it’s important to reevaluate things, people, situations, and habits that no longer serve us. If we’re honest, we may even find that are actually draining life from us, as did my damaged charger cable. We must get to the point where we can prayerfully move on.
After finally obtaining a new charger, I realized I had wasted so much time trying to preserve its predecessor. It had run its course, and me trying to extend its life was futile. It was simply time for something new. Scriptures tells us that we need a new mind so He can do a new thing, so we can become a new creature and live a new life.
New Mind: Ephesians 4:22,23
“…putting off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
A New Thing: Isaiah 43; 18,19
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
A New Creature: II Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
New Life: Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
It’s okay to let go, something new is in store.
