New Operating System

I have finally come to realise that soon I need to buy a new laptop for my business. Normally I would be excited and in part I am but I know this time it will mean I have to get to know a new operating system, the dreaded Vista.

It is so different from what I have grown used to but because I sell PC's and repair and fix them I need to bite the bullet. I know I will get frustrated because they have renamed familiar tasks and some of the ways of working will seem long-winded. Its par for the course.

I then realised that coping with change is not something that I have just found difficult as I get older, I have never relished the process of change. What is it about change that is challenging? For me it is having to become vulnerable. I like the unfamiliar that change brings but the vulnerability is the thing that gets to me.

I remember when Windows XP replaced Windows 98. I was an expert in 98. I didn't want to become a novice again. Now I am quite knowledgeable on a PC with XP installed so I don't want to move into Vista.

In the Bible there were similar experts in Jesus time. They were experts in the law of the Old Testament. They could quote it, tell you how to apply it and in some cases how to get round it. In one example the law says that on the Sabbath you can't travel more than a mile from your gatepost so they made the gateposts portable and put them in the cart with them.

Jesus came a long with a new operating system. It was all about humility and grace, love and meekness and faith in God justifying a person for eternity. It threatened the whole way of life for the law experts. They were sincere in their beliefs but Jesus said the effect of this on people was like carrying a heavy yoke on your back.

This challenge of new things didn't end with Jesus. The Apostle Paul began to reveal new things as well. Things like, no circumcision, priesthood for all and everyone being Spirit-filled believers.

The challenges still continue. I am seeing that the new challenge is for the church. Is God bringing new things that we are seeing as a threat to our way of doing things? I think He is. After all its His Church He can do what He wants with it can't He?

Eventually the thing that I was expert at will become obsolete. Windows 98 is a fading glory, XP will follow in the same way. Vista is the new thing and if that's were the work is I have to adapt. I won't get much work as an expert on Windows 98! I have to name the old as obsolete and embrace the new.

Maybe spiritually this is what is holding some of us back. Has God moved on and we are clinging to old operating systems.