Wine Or Whine?

9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” John 2:9-10

I likely have told this story before, but I don't think it ever gets old. In the early days of walking through my divorce, I was visiting with my pastor and his wife. I was in a dark, broken place. I ached....mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. All appeared lost, and nothing appeared on the horizon. Everything was a bleak grey turning to black. Yet into this my pastor spoke. He told me, "Remember. Christ always saves His best wine until last." Those words took hold of my heart and mind, and the seeming iron grey skies were pierced with His almighty light. All the pain was still there, but a new and deep realization that He was there too broke through. I would go on believing, knowing, that His best wine for me was yet to come. I have experienced the truth of that again and again. I will go on experiencing it here and into His eternity. All of us can.

I've been mulling this writing for some time now, and I think it will speak to all of us on some level. I think it will do so through a simple question; what is it that has the upper hand in our day to day lives? His new wine, or our unending whine? Which shows forth in our lives? Which is showing forth in yours?

We're complainers by nature. Certainly some are more so than others, but all of us have a point where we will pour out our complaint, to other people and to God. This can be healthy, especially if we do so with the Father. David did. Job did. Countless believers through the ages have. We need to pour our hearts out to Him in our pain. He welcomes it. Yet it is how we do so, and in what spirit that makes all the difference. Too often we come to Him with either an attitude of being offended, as in how could He let this happen, or with entitlement. He should be doing a lot better by us than this. These attitudes aren't just wrong. They're sinful. What He, and everyone else hears from us is "the whine." We don't ever tire of letting those around us, and Him, know how hard our lives are, and how we want everything made better right now. We live in the whine, and the skies just grow darker all the time.

What He calls us to is the place of the new wine. The new wine is symbolic of His Holy Spirit, which He's always eager to pour into our lives. He calls us to live in expectation of it. Jesus Himself said that the Father loves to give His Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. The new wine will always be the portrait of the new way, new place, new hope that He wants to pour into our lives. We live in a fallen world, and we will never be immune to the troubles and pain that come with it. In this fallen world He pours out His new wine for His people. We can choose to live in the outpouring of His new wine, or in the constant outpouring of our own whining. Which is it for us right now?

Wherever you may find yourself, know that no matter how dark or seemingly hopeless you find it or feel in it, He has His new wine for you. Ask Him for it. Expect Him to supply it. Reject the lifestyle of the whiner, and embrace the unending supply of His new wine. His best wine for you, for me, is always yet to come.....if we will have it. Will you have it?

Blessings,
Pastor O