Once every while
you will hear about amazing people. These people can defy the odds. I have seen
this happen on many different levels from people doing bewildering things in
athletics, to people that love beyond belief to people once a slave to alcohol
overcome. What if people stop improving and went back to their old way? Or if
people were overtaken by the things they defeated? It can be crushing.
There was once
this high school athlete player who was on his quick way to fame. He was
extremely good and unstoppable. He worked on his game and was going to college
to play on full scholarship. His freshman year he wasn’t great but was a good
player and had the potential to do so much. Then his grades came out and soon
he was ineligible soon after that what look like a promising career went away.
People quick to respond would say he was wasted talent. He wasn’t much of a
student and completely went away from focusing on grades and it cost him his
career. We can get wrapped into bad habits or falling into the old way of doing
things. We can stop moving forward and start moving backwards and soon could be
considered wasting talent.
Paul was
wondering if the same people he invested time in were falling back to their old
ways and were wasting talent in Galatians 4:8-11…
“Formerly, when you did not know God you were
slaves to those who by nature are not gods’ 9 But now that you
know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to
those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over
again 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons
and years 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my
efforts on you.”
These same
people that Paul spent time training were going back to their old ways. They
were under the spell of people who told them faith was better done the way it
was before Jesus came. They were keeping special days, months, festivals and
specials seasons/ years. They were so wrapped into the old ways of life
thinking they would gain extra favor with God. Paul had to tell these people
they were wasting their time. This was like volunteering to work on a computer with
Windows 3.1 instead of Windows 8. It’s like going back to using a discontinued
computer from 20 years ago and thinking your boss or teacher is going to give
you a bonus for using a device that doesn’t work that well to accomplish the
same goal. Paul had to share that these works couldn’t not be added to faith
for an extra bonus and it was working against what faith was all about.
Nobody wants to
feel that his or her efforts have been wasted on someone undeserving. I knew a
couple that’s child was having difficulties, they put the child in counseling,
it didn’t work. The child later went to court and later had to go to spend some
time in the juvenile system and comeback not changed. The parents took out
their retirement to put for this child to a special place to help them out. The
parents exhausted all of their finances and the child didn’t improve and was
back in the juvenile system. The parents felt loss as they exhausted all of
their money and it wasn’t helping. Nobody wants to feel like that.
This is what
Paul calls for change. Don’t get wrapped into the old ways, Jesus came to give
us a new way of life, a new direction. Don’t get wrapped into the old dead
practices, move forward and see the difference that can make. We don’t have to
be wrapped into the people we were in the past, we can overcome we can get
better. We don’t have to feel like wasted talent. Move forward, don’t get
wrapped into the old way.
Nobody says
moving forward is easy. Anything worth doing is worth fighting for, but it’s up
to us to move forward and not get wrapped into the old way of life. Paul wanted
the people to not be wasted effort. Are you ready to move forward?
Have a great
day.
