Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! -2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT
In 2009, I started this blog because I wanted to encourage people in their faith and communicate God’s love to people. In the first two years, the blog went through several iterations, several different designs and several different hosting companies. In 2011, I finally settled on a hosting company, which became the home not only for my blog but for several other websites for family, friends, and two small churches.
After that choice, I never looked back because the relationship with the hosting company was solid and they always delivered. Everything was going well until it was not. After my site and one other site crashed, I realized that I needed to create a more secure environment for all of the sites. It would come at a cost.
When it was all said and done, it would cost $1275 instead of $240 per year to host all of the sites. It was clear that it would be financially prohibitive to move to the better plan.
After almost ten years, my relationship with the hosting company needed to end. Besides my line sisters, a few friends and my family, I have not remained in relationship with anyone for longer than that. For me, it wasn’t just about the money, it was about the relationship.
So, I reluctantly researched other companies. Eventually, I found a company that could do the work at a better price, even less than what I was paying for my current plan with the old company.
Why were they so much cheaper? Both companies were great, but on the backend, their costs were so different because of each company’s business model and where they chose to devote their time and resources. The new company focused on customers like me; whereas, the other company focused on larger companies with deeper pockets.
Even as I made the choice to go with the highly recommended and more cost-effective company, I grieved the loss of my relationship with the former company. Even in my grief, I had to accept that it was time to focus on something new. I was trying to grow my ministry and I needed to devote time and resources to that while also maintaining the other sites, all of which are ministries as well. So, I made the choice to go with something new.
This weekend, as I was moving the sites over to the new company, 2 Corinthians 5:17 came to mind. “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT).
To be honest, I am a creature of habit who is fiercely loyal to people, even when those people are not the best for me. However, in order to grow my ministry, I needed to do something new, which meant letting go of the old thing – the former hosting company.
Christ is always calling us to new life – new places, new habits, new relationships, new assignments. That new life almost always comes at a cost. The cost is letting go of the old things, the former things that no longer work. In order to be a new person, we must do a new thing.
So, what is the new thing that God is calling you to? What is God asking you to let go of in order to experience new life in Christ Jesus?