It had only been four months since graduation. I thought I’d be able to waltz in and blend easily with the students, picking up friendships and networking with teachers right where I left off. I was wrong. I felt like a stranger in a place that for four years was virtually home to me - even when it was a harsh and unforgiving one.
As I moved with the crowd of students, I noticed something no one else did - I no longer belonged there. Everything felt different, though everything was exactly the same. It was me who had changed so drastically. I didn’t realize it while it was happening, I suppose I couldn’t see myself evolving because the process was such a subtle one. It took returning to an old environment to realize what had happened. The person I was didn’t fit the shell of who I was when I was there, and the person I had become would forever be a visitor in that space, never a denizen.
Mark 2:22
New Living Translation (NLT)
22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”
The same thing happens in all aspects of life, I guess. Jesus cautioned us in Mark about putting “new wine in old wineskins”. The danger isn’t just in destroying the old wineskins, but losing the new wine that has been cultivated! I certainly believe that’s what would have happened with sonofthefatheroflights. I’ve changed so radically in my time away, that trying to fit my new being in that old shell just felt forced and uncomfortable. It couldn’t contain it, and I want to steward the “new wine” He’s pouring out over me well, hence the change.
I am brave. I am fearless. I am His. I am finding myself, and learning to like who that is. These are all the parts of me that would have spilled out of that cup. This might get messy. But it will forever be me. This is my journey.
Welcome. -RJ