Old Patches on New Garments

My awareness from absorbing Proverbs 25:4 has been lingering for days. The first thing that became apparent was the “dross” cannot coexist with the “silver” prompting a giving up process versus one of getting. The preeminent venture capitalist, Ann Winblad, once said, “If you are going to invest forward, what you knew yesterday is not good enough for tomorrow.” She was, of course, referring to financial investments but the same analogy is true of the spirit. We must be willing to give up worn out concepts whose tattered edges are fishhooks to the soul. They represent our identity with yesterday’s definitions and they are “not good enough for tomorrow.”

Not long ago, a minister made the same point in her Sunday sermon. She told of breaking a fingernail en route to a presentation several hours away where she was the keynote speaker. Since there wasn’t time for a repair manicure, she decided to stop at the first drugstore, buy nail glue and glue the broken part of her nail back on. Glue in hand with twenty minutes to spare this seemed like a plan, except for one thing.

When she attempted to glue the broken part of the nail back, it didn’t fit! In a flash, she saw the fluidity of life and that imperceptible change takes place in each moment. When we hold onto the dead parts that have broken off and attempt to affix them onto the present, disappointment is the result. Her experience turned out to be a valuable lesson she shared with her audience as she held up her hand, broken nail included, for all to see.