A big change happened recently! I changed soap. Now why is that such big news? As far back as I can remember, the bath soap that my family has used has always been Safeguard. I don’t know why – it’s either my parents believed the advertisements, or because my mother used to work for the company that manufactured it - I never really asked, but every since I was a young kid the soap in the bathroom, in our guest bathrooms, and even in the kitchen sink, was Safeguard.
And so, when I got married, what soap do you think I had my family use? Safeguard. Well, by the time I got married I believed that it was the best soap to use, killing 99% of household germs, so they said. But it was more because of tradition. We used it before, no reason to change brand. Even when another brand came out, also claiming to kill 99% of household germs, I did not lift a pinky to even try it. I stuck to one soap. I was a “one soap man”.
Until last week. For some reason, as I was walking down the bath soap aisle of the supermarket, I saw the other brand of soap, and decided to try it. I’ll admit that one of the reasons was the price, since it was cheaper. But then I told myself – if they claim to also be a germ killing soap why don’t I try it? And, at the same time, save some money.
Well, after days of using the soap, the topic just popped up in the dinner table, and everyone was saying that they liked the new soap, including myself. It smells good, it seems to last long in the body, and it looks like it does perform as the advertisements say. So, it seems like we’ve shifted to another brand of bath soap – a better one, for us at least. And we’re happy…and clean.
It’s hard to break tradition. Even if there are claims of a better one out there, if we have used a certain product traditionally, or habitually, it’s hard to get ourselves to try new ones. Sometimes we even stick to tradition without even knowing why. I remember the story of a woman who baked chicken in a unique way – she would cut the edge of the legs before putting it into the oven. Her husband asked her why, and all she could say was “that’s how my mom did it”. So the wife asked her mom why she cut the edge of the legs of the chicken, and her mom had no explanation…all she said was “that’s how your grandmother used to cook it”. So the wife finally asked her grandmother why she would cut the edge of the legs when baking chicken. And her grandmother answered “it’s because our ovens during our time were small, and the chicken just wouldn’t fit”.
I remember asking our cook why she would put salt in the cover of the rice cooker while it was still cooking. She didn’t know why, she just did it because that’s what she was told. It’s hard to break tradition.
Luke 5:36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
Luke 5:37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
Luke 5:38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
Luke 5:39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"
I remember when I started growing in my personal walk with the Lord, how God’s Word, the Bible, started revealing to me what His will was, how He wanted me to live, and how He wanted me to worship…I remember how there were many practices, both in religion and in life, that I knew God wanted me to change. It was hard. But for a heart that was made new the old ways just wouldn’t work. There were lots of new teachings, new revelations, that the Lord was revealing that had to be put into “new wineskins”, into a new heart. And so I had to start getting rid of traditions, both in how I worshipped and also in how I lived, and I started living according to what I believed God wanted me to do according to His Word. It was hard at first, but eventually the “new wine” started to blend with the “new wineskin”, or the new heart that God had given me.
If you are in a similar situation, and you feel that God has changed your heart, has given you a new heart, ready to know more of Him, more of His Word, don’t be afraid to get rid of the old to make room for the “new”. You’re a new wineskin now – there’s new wine out there that God wants to pour into your heart through His Word. Not that all traditions are wrong, but we need to ask ourselves "why am I doing this?", "is this what God desires from me?". It's God's traditions that count, not man's traditions.
Don’t be afraid to leave what are human traditions, and take the new things that God wants you doing, and enjoy it!
Isa 43:18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
Isa 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
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