Are we Rutted or Rooted? Truly Experiencing a NEW THING.

The sound of wagon wheels can almost still be heard traversing the dry rocky grasslands of Wyoming, each wagon following another down a dusty trail, over jagged stone  and  wild river,one after another. Inevitably somewhere down the road, the wheel of the lead wagon would get caught in a deep rut left by previous pioneers and break in the process, causing the entire train to stand idle for however long it took to fix the wheel. It was rare that a wagon would pull off the trail and go around, nobody wanted to be caught in territory unfamiliar , where the possibilities and pitfalls were unknown.
 A few and I mean a very few, burned their own trail and moved forward. Overcoming whatever fear to endeavor in hope and progress. Progress can be a fearful thing, and  likely we would rather sit with the clan rather than stake out the territory and roll out towards change, Ah but beloved,  when we do that we sure can get our wagons in a rut!
 I have moved to a new area- and in the process have sought a church of zealous believers like those I had known prior in Tennessee. Some suggestions being made to go here or there, I have followed up on- and having gone to the new body, found that when I had heard the bulletin, watched the video, listened to the familiar songs, and heard an either enthusiastic sermon (or not so enthusiastic,lol)teaching brought by the minister, have felt that save for the  new faces and different buildings nothing much changed in their atmosphere.
My favorite thus far is a church that was lovingly friendly and openly so- not something I had encountered thus far- but still and again, though they were open to loving the four white faces in an all black crowd-Kuddos for that! Yet they to held onto traditions they had enjoyed long before I came, and will likely employ long after I am gone. 
I like tradition to some degree- I bake the same cookies every year at holiday times, I make southern sweet potato pie, and gingerbread waffles pretty much every year, and I attempt to watch every holiday movie from a bygone era I can get my hands on- but due to situations, sometimes I have to vary what occurs and adapt- tradition then rolls with circumstance. 
However- though we oft times say we are ready for change, and want to go there, it is amazing to me, how we will not alter or variate from what we have known.
We will sing our gospel,or contemporary songs just as we have heard them and have sung them..we will run service today, tomorow, and always just as we have run them, we will sit in the same pew, and expect the same things, and though we may say we want to see change or revival, we will sit in the rut of our chosen paths, well- pretty much ...Forever.
Yet we say- God is doing a NEW THING. And Lovie we say it like we mean it- but we little step away from our traditions and our old things, to let the new thing occur- ah we are so deeply rutted in fact we haven't even caught on to the fact our wheel is entirely broken.
Like way ward sheep we follow the same tradition,each in a line of generation to generation -in our services, in our behaviors, and in our responses. We say the popular catch phrase, we do like grandma did when she praised, we say what Pastor  or some well known preacher said when he gets excited or does something we think has a need for an odd little evocation over a healing or circumstance, Like when we thunk a persons head or push them over well.Hmmm , Well Hunny God don't need me to thunk a head or rock someone into a balance toppling turn over- he can knock me clean out without a single touch! yet we thunk people in the same way that another thunked him, and I have to ask , WHY?  Don't we trust a powerful God to do it without us? We measure our movements, attitudes, and inflections all by what we have done, seen or heard, OVER and Over, and over. Rather than each one of us becoming singular minded in Christ, we are following the next sheeps tail in our learned behaviors, and our services show it-  Many back away from the  crowd of  bleating sheep, because they cannot see the master, just  all those wagging tails moving down the road, one after the other- perpetually in line with a rut.
RUT. RUT. RUT.
I don't want to be rutted- I want to be rooted in God, Rooted in the fresh new and awe inspiring things of Christ- open, ready willing.  I want to change whats necessary to make that happen, it may just mean I also need to change my mind, or dare I say it? Break away from tradition!
 You see friend, God does want to breath new life into his bride, but here's an interesting thought we may want to take home to our hearts, There were ten virgins who awaited the bride groom, five were ready and prepared with lamp oil burning bright, while five were not.
Five represent the church who will seek God with openness, readiness, and - FRESH FILLED OIL, and five hoped to wing it and unfortunately got left in the dark. 
( Scripture ref- Mt 25:1-13) Oh what an interesting parable this is- How it should provoke us to expectancy! For the ten foolish is this sad rutted out body, who borrows from tradition, stiffles change, and sits in religion, but changes nothing and prepares nothing for their beloved. They just  sleep.
 While the prudent virgins, not only prepared the lamps they carried they brought extra! whats this telling us beloved? read on- It speaks of those same foolish Virgins begging the wise ones for oil- why, because they lacked and were trying to improvise, trying to steal from the real- how sad, there was plenty of oil to be had, but they would rather float their little boats, in a tub that was full of leaks, and paddle about till it drained dry, oh Hunny, are we ever seeing the foolish virgins today!  And that same group of sleepy girls, had to seek out a midnight oil shop, came late to their bridegroom, and entirely missed the voyage of their life! 
When can you EVER see anything of the new if your so rutted in the old there is no room for change? When you sleep through your  time to prepare for the groom!  Answer...You cant. 
You have to have a heart WAITING and READY. Seeking and SOUL THIRSTY. Because without expectation and readiness, the wells of oil in our lives are dried up and useless. 
Lovie if I can pray just one thing into you- it is this, stop worrying over what others will think or do if change happens, and start considering where they will be, before God, if it doesn't- WE ALL NEED THE OIL!
Pharisees did religion in a rut, and professed faith with no  burning for  love of God or others- no compassion no kindness, no zeal, save to simply portray religion. Rutted in tradition is not the same as being rooted in faith.
Faith will take the risk of pulling out of the rut, driving around the old path, and forge forward in the hopes and bright expectations that God will indeed meet them there, and since he is an Unfailing God, He will. Will there be bumps in the road? you bet- some will ruthlessly cling to their lanterns and shuffle about in the dark for fear of any change- but others, the New Generation of deep calls to deep believers, will come thirsty, desiring change, hungering for all Christ has, restoring the oil of joy and praise into the lamps, Burning bright in preparation for their beloved!


Oh Father Let your heart pour out into this generation , stir our hunger, pull us out of tradition and religion and stoke us to a true flame, pour out the oil of your Spirit  into our lives, and our atmosphere, and cause us to be unsatisfied with anything but MORE OF YOU.
Amen