From the Edges – Morning Devotions- The Patch

From the Edges – Morning Devotions
Pastor Calvin Cook
Push Out Into the Deep – May 1, 2024
Day 9 – The Patch
Scripture focus – Luke 5: 36-39 Jesus told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Yesterday in my travels, I saw a road maintenance crew working filling in potholes and cracks along the road. I immediately thought of my Dad. Dad worked for half a lifetime for PennDot. Dad plowed roads in the winter, fixed roads in the summer. Whenever I would be with him somewhere he would also tell me of how road repair crews worked. Dad knew about all things fixing roads.

I served as a borough councilman in my young years, when I was energetic and thought I could be a change agent in the community. One of the committees I worked on was the street committee. We had an area on one of the streets that had a drainage issue. As much work was put into the repair of this area, no one could get it right.

I remember asking Dad to look at it one time. I remember his response was that we were spending all the time patching it up, we had not addressed the main problem of the situation. It turned out that a drainage pipe that ran under the road and the culvert were fully blocked and crumbling. No one thought to look deeper. Once a new drainage pipe was installed and the culvert repaired the problem was gone.

This compares to our lives. Especially to the way we approach our spiritual lives. We should be seeking to grow every day, seeking to make significant changes in our lives that draw us closer to God. James 4:8 reminds us that this is done by the cleansing of our sinfulness or making the necessary repair. However, it seems to me we just try to put band aids over the problem or do the same thing and expect something new and different. We patch with as Jesus described something that looks good for the moment and not what is eternal. We put a new patch over an old problem. We don’t address the foundation or the root of the problem.

Sadly, enough the words of Luke 5:39 speak of our lives “And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” Friends we have gotten use to just OK, we have all the new things that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is desiring to do in our life, but yet we stick with the old thing. This might give us momentary satisfaction, a momentary fix, but is not addressing the main eternal problem, the need for repair of our soul.

Following the call to “push out into the deep” by Jesus to the disciples was a breakthrough moment of change that added to what they had been searching for. First the confession of sin, the acknowledgement of the power of God, and finally a response of complete surrender and change.

We not only need to push out into the deep following the Jesus way, but making the changes that change us inside, renew us and move us forward. This is my prayer for today.