Ramblings from Retirement – A Whole New OS

Ramblings from Retirement – A Whole New OS
By Pastor Lee Hemen
June 1, 2021

I recently have been trying to load a new OS (operating system) to an old laptop I have. Doing things like this is enjoyable for me. I also just replaced a hard drive, reformatted it, and loaded the OS for an Xbox system. It is like when my father in law would find joy in his carpentry and a job well done. Doing computer or cell phone geek stuff and having it go right gives me enjoyment. However with trying to get this old laptop working with a different OS has proven a bit frustrating. I am sure the final outcome will be fine but the work and the constant failure for it to load properly is frustrating.

Life can be that way for some of us when it seems like we are constantly rebooting ourselves and it seems as if nothing is working. Perhaps the answer is using a better OS for your life? I’ve learned that trying to do the same things the same way with the same results is foolish. Perhaps your life needs a reboot with a brand new OS?

Paul had been living his life the same way for decades and kept getting the same results. We first discover Paul as a young, knowledgeable, and devout Jew who was in training to be part of the Priesthood and Sanhedrin. He would write about himself that “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. (Philippians 3:4-6 NIV)” But Paul’s old OS had left him full of doubts about his life, his goals, and what he was doing. It is there right in the middle of his old OS failing that God meets him on the road in the midst of a mission to persecute believers. Jesus dramatically changes Paul’s OS and because of that wonderful life change he would write that “Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NIV)” Paul’s life had been changed because of the love of God through Jesus.

There is the answer that perhaps your life needs to boot a new OS and instead of living for yourself and doing things the same way and getting the same results why not give your life to Christ, accept him, and boot up a whole new OS? Remember what Paul wrote after he had done this very thing: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

This article is copyrighted © 2021 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

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