The one with the old Hard-Drive

A few months ago the unthinkable happened and I was forced to re-think a lot of the way I do life.  Yes, it really was that drastic and the event's aftermath took me by surprise just as much as the event itself.

You see, one afternoon in April, I sat down at my laptop to prepare a talk for the following week at Youth, and as I checked out the relevance of a particular youtube clip - it happened.  At first I thought it was just a glitch, but time and effort proved otherwise.  My Mac hard drive had died.

Now, of course, all sensible people keep back-ups of all data don't they?   But I have never been that sensible!  Everything was lost;  itunes library, documents, photos - the lot.  A small part of my life had gone!

Originally I thought that I could live without all the information.  I would simply purchase a new hard drive and start to build the data up again - and this time I would back everything up.  However, as time passed I realised just how much had been lost on the original hard drive that I would really appreciate having back.

So, the broken hard drive was shipped off to the experts to rebuild and recover the lost data.  Several weeks and a lot of money later, almost all of the contents of my old hard drive returned.  As I browsed the files, I felt comforted that my life would shortly be restored.  All was about to return to how it had once been.

And so it began; file after file copied across.  I originally thought that this would be a quick and simple process.  I was wrong!  It would take a lot longer than I expected.  I had accumulated a lot of data in the short time I had had my Mac.

As the old files transferred, I had to find each one a new home on the new hard drive.  This process was not only time consuming but it also highlighted the amount of files that I had kept that I no longer really needed.  Sure, a lot of them were useful, and I would maybe open them again in the future - but some of them - well - were quite literally a waste of space!  And there I had sat, transferring them across to my new hard drive.

Why?  I paused the file transfers, made myself a cup of tea, and thought about the complete file transfer, and as I did, I realised a couple of things:

Firstly, it was far easier to copy everything across.  I didn't have to click on all files individually, but could save a lot of time and effort by transferring a complete folder.

Secondly, although a lot of the files being transferred were old, and would probably never be opened again - there was a certain amount of comfort in knowing all my past work and effort would be there - just in case. 

So, ease and comfort led the way, and I continued with the file transfers.  That is, until I began to see how quickly the new hard drive was filling up.  I hadn't realised quite how much I had on my old drive!  If I copied everything across, the new hard drive wouldn't be much use in the future.  Not unless the purpose of it was simply to store the same as it always had.

I wonder how much of our life today is simply a store for the past?  Do we save so much that we leave very little room for new experiences, attitudes, thoughts, dreams, hopes?

Do we hold on to the things in our lives that may have been useful once, but now serve no purpose?

Do we continue to store incomplete or corrupt files, that will not only take up 'space' in our lives, but may also have a negative effect on our future development?


Do we wake up each morning and pick up everything from the day, week, month, year before, simply because it has become a habit and is easier than focusing on new things?

Do we cling on to the past, because it has become a comfort for us - disappointments, rubbish and all?

Of course, some of our past is still important, and can have a positive influence on our future.  But what of the parts of our life that stop us moving forward?  God says - 'See I am doing a new thing!'  (Isaiah 43:19) God doesn't want us to dwell on our past.  He wants us to move forward.  He wants to do a new thing in our lives.  He wants to make a new way for us, not go over old ground.

I want God to be doing new things in my life.  I want to see him move in new and exciting ways.  I know I need to let go of some of my 'ease and comfort' of the past to allow room for the new.  This will take effort, and may even be a little uncomfortable at times, but it is the right thing to do.  I don't want to keep going over the same things.  I don't want to become stale.  I want to move forward into the new things God has in store for me.

What about you?

Are you ready for new things in your life - or are you going to continue to transfer all your old files over because of ease and comfort?  Is this really what you want?

Can I encourage you to join me in the new?!  Let's have a closer look at our file transfers and see what needs deleting.  Get excited, let go of the old, and see what God will do!

'Forget about what's happened;
   don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
   It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
   rivers in the badlands.'  

Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message)

Bring it on!!