Old habits die hard
Indeed they must die before new ones can be born. We are creatures of habit and much of what we do each day, we do on autopilot. We don’t stop and think [why we do what we do]. This saves us energy for the really hard stuff life throws at us.
This is all fine until you are confronted with change (both planned and unplanned) that throws us out of our comfort zone. We move to a new city, country, change jobs, get married, start a family, etc.
Moving from Kuala Lumpur to Canberra, I see so many differences as well as similarities. This transition had challenged me to reexamine my values and forced me to rethink and open up to new ways of thinking and doing things.
I have been challenged to change each time we moved, to learn, adapt and come out of my own shell (worldview) and see that there is a bigger world out there.
The change process is described using some very radical language by Jesus and the Apostle Paul who both emphasise the death of the past and the beginning of a new future using words like:
Transformation
New life, a new creation, new birth, born again
Death, burial and resurrection
Born of the water and the Spirit
Baptism – the ritual re-enactment of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
Burial of the [old man] and raising up of the [new man]
Change comes with a huge price tag
Something inside of us must “die” before we can change and take on a new way of seeing, thinking and being.
We have to let go of the past and the old way of doing things that we have become so used to and is now so much a part of who we are. Now that’s really hard work with a huge cost to pay.
Difficult but not impossible.
Exodus 