NEW!

I'm big on new.  Though not particularly bent on consumerism, I like new stuff.  For 27 years I have resisted the very idea of buying a leaf-blower.  Well... come by the house on Saturday morning and I will introduce you to my newest little friend.  I have been looking forward to the weekend when I will break out my suburban lawn debris mover. Why such a craving for the new?
Well, for one thing it wards off boredom.
I think we also believe the lie that new is improved and better than what went before.  Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.  New Coke.
All this is to say, that this hunger for new makes my job very difficult.  The newest thing to talk about in my line of work happened 2000 years ago. Most of the people I preach to every week, know the story or text before I read it.  They know the hymns, they know the liturgy and they know all my sweaters!  I need a new one!
However,  I do think there is something about this new stuff that is really helpful and healthful.  Though I don't need a new Bible or a new theology, I do need a new and fresh understanding and appreciation for  what I already know.  I need it to touch me.  I need it to matter.  I need it to spur on my thinking and my feeling.  It feels like life, because it is.  Refreshing comes not from something new but something old that is fresh and clear and delightful.  It is like seeing something on your route to work that has been there for years, but this morning you noticed it for the first time.
So.. here are a few ways in my study I try to cultivate this.
First I read people who I don't agree with, simply because they use my vocabulary in a new way.  I read some blogs and books that are well-done but not not always Reformed, covenantal and confessional.  They help me experience the old truth in new and challenging ways.  Kate Braestrup and Daniel Kirk help me alot.
Second, I open myself up to the possibility that though 51 and a Christian a long time, I am just beginning.   I need to keep learning.
Third, I need to be around more young people and kids.  They help me re-discover joy.
Well.. that's all I have now, but I plan to write on this some more, when I have something new to say....