My family has a 1996 Ford Explorer that over the years, every person in my family has claimed as their own, and I have been driving it for the past few years.
Over the 13 years we have owned it, different parts of the car have messed up, stopped working, fallen off, and so on. Also over the years, I have grown used to the dysfunctions, and they have become normal to me.
Long story short, the Explorer couldn’t go on anymore, and my parents bought a new car, that I now get to drive. It’s pretty cool, a 2005 Nissan Murano. It’s cool, but it’s definitely an adjustment. As I said earlier, I had grown accustomed to taking extra steps due to malfunctions, and as I am driving something new, I realize that what I thought was normal in a car really isn’t normal at all.
I don’t have to check the oil every other day, I don’t have to manually push down every lock, I don’t have to cringe at the awful noise the locks make, and I don’t have to worry about the alarm randomly going off. I don’t have to, but out of habit I still find myself taking these unnecessary steps to make things work, when now, they work on their own.
The same can be true with stepping into new seasons in life. As the Lord makes you new in different areas, you don’t have to struggle as you did before (not that you won’t have struggles, but as He refines areas of your life, you learn how to better manage certain situations).
Many of us have lived in dysfunction for so long, that even when the Lord makes us new, we continue to walk in our old ways, and it can be exhausting! We have to learn how to live in the newness God has given us, just as I am learning how to drive a car that actually works. The same is true with forgiveness. If you ask the Lord to forgive you, He will do it! But unless you receive and walk in that forgiveness, you will unnecessarily continue to walk in the shame and guilt of past mistakes.
Personally, I am learning how to walk in the freedom of being a beloved daughter of the King. I AM free, but I don’t always walk in that freedom because for 21 years I have developed habits of someone in bondage to the world, to the acceptance of others, to the lie that I have to strive to be good enough. I’m learning that the lies of the world that I thought were normal, actually aren’t normal at all. I had become so used to striving, but now I am learning to just BE in the presence of my Heavenly Father.
It’s a process, and I don’t do it flawlessly, but thankfully, His grace is sufficient.
What new season are you stepping into? What area of your life is Jesus making new? Are you fully walking in the newness God has given you?
