Renewal

 

I am about to cut my Driver’s License in half and return it to the DVLA. I got this license after refresher lessons and a challenging test, over forty years ago when I moved to Scotland. It is valid until I am 70. In 1976, that seemed an eternity away. Now it’s nearly here.

I’ve renewed the license with an up-to-date photo, so that I am still legal to operate a car. Without that renewal, I would not be deemed safe to drive.

Some things need renewing more often than others.

Paul wrote that we are to go on being filled with the Spirit. That every day we need to come to God and ask for a fresh filling of his Spirit. Without Him, our compassion and patience, our kindness and love, reduce to a trickle. As we remain connected to him, as Jesus told the woman at the well, streams of living water continue to flow through us into this thirsty, hurting world.

I can’t wait forty years to renew my connection with God. I need him every hour, as the song says. Minute by minute I need Jesus. So grateful that he never lets me go.