Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
I’ve heard it recently said that, “Every new level in life you aspire to requires a different you.” At eighteen I was tired of being a quitter. I hate to admit how many jobs I had had by my eighteenth birthday. It seemed that if it wasn’t easy I wanted no part of it. And, after graduating high school and embarking on a sales carrier path I was already tired of it, so I knew I needed a “real change.” It would have to be college or the military, and because I hated school the service was the answer.
My favorite uncle on my dad’s side of the family was Uncle Roy, at least that’s what he was to me, but for the many Marines under his command he was known as Major Bixler. I’ll never forget standing in awe as a little boy when I would watch him put on his dress uniform for a family wedding. Uncle Roy was my real life G.I. Joe hero, and because of his influence I chose the Marines.
Just before leaving for boot camp I ran into my favorite uncle on my mom’s side of the family, Uncle Jerry, at a local restaurant. Jerry was only about ten years older than me so I had seen him more as an older brother, but I was proud of him too for becoming a North Carolina State Trooper.
He asked me to step outside and sit with him in his Patrol Car and then he said; “I hear you joined the Marines,” to which I replied “yep.” He said, “Well, I hate to tell you this, but you’re not gonna make it. I know how hard Patrol School was, and I just don’t think you’ve got it in you.”
Jerry knew exactly why he was saying that to me. I heard those words every day during those 13 weeks of boot camp. Those words got me through the toughest military basic training in the world, and I thanked him for it later.
In Mark 10:46-52 we see the story about a man known as “Blind Bartimaeus” who was a beggar. As he heard the commotion of Jesus leaving his town one day he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those nearest him tried to hush him up but he couldn’t be silenced because he knew this was his chance for the life he had always dreamt of. He just wanted a new life, one in which he could see.
Jesus heard him and summand for him to come, but before he did, verse 50 says, “Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.” You see, he was wearing a “beggars coat” and he knew that if he was going to step into the destiny and the new life God had for him, he would have to shed that beggars coat forever and just like Bartimaes, I had to shed the coat of a “quitter” in exchange for a new uniform.
God still has some big things planned for you and maybe it’s time to shed the old you. Let go of the fears that have held you captive, or the old habits that have weighed you down. It’s time for you to put on your new coat of “more than a conqueror, a success, and a blessing every where you go!”
Because you are in Christ you’re a “new creation,” so let Him wash away all the old and make “all things new.”