The power company shut off the power to our church.

Persecution? No. They are upgrading the distribution lines by replacing poles and installing higher-capacity lines.

This is often called “grid hardening.” It means they are strengthening the power network to withstand higher demand, extreme weather, wear and tear, and long-term load growth.

Upgrades are needed because things fall apart and breakdown.

The power lines and poles in front of my church were placed in 1953! I don’t even know how that is possible, but the project manager proved it to me. I know “they don’t make things like they used to,” but these things are due to fail any day now.

Science would call this the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or entropy. Things and systems naturally drift toward disorder unless intentional force is applied to preserve it. Entropy explains why neglect always wins unless something actively resists it.

Upgrades are needed when demand exceeds capacity.

The current lines were built to serve Brazil in 1953, maybe even 1993, but not Brazil in 2026. There are more people living in this area than even just thirty years ago. Our lives have become fully electrified. We have more people using more things that require a lot more power.

You don’t have to be a mechanical engineer to know that when supply cannot keep up with demand, we’re about to run into problems.

Another reason is simply because better becomes available. This is what we do with our phones, right?

The technology we have today is far superior than what we had 10 years ago, let alone 70.

We have more efficient and capable equipment, so why not use it?

The uncomfortable question is whether the same logic we accept so easily for infrastructure also applies to the internal systems that carry our values, responsibilities and lives.

I know I wrote about this last week, but something of this magnitude does not happen in 3.5 minutes. It takes serious work.

These are your morals and ethics. This is mental, moral, spiritual, physical discipline.

Convictions guide you to behaving faithfully to your purpose. They help you both bear the difficulties, and steward the abundance, of life. They should be anchored in reality, truth and virtue. These should be the guide for how you determine what your responsibility is.

Convictions should be significant features of your beliefs and values. This will protect your relationships and well-being. Upgrading your convictions means not blindly inheriting the infrastructure of a generation gone by, but consciously examining the inheritance and improving according to the demands of what life is today, along with your new knowledge and wisdom.

What is the condition of the convictions you once held? Are they the same quality as they were when you first established them? One, two, five… ten years of wear and tear can really reduce conductivity.

Have your responsibilities increased over time? Is life demanding more from you? Is the commitment those convictions required sufficient to empower the life you’ve been able to obtain, or are you precariously close to a “power failure”?

Are you already experiencing failures? Are you more fragile than before? This shows up as constant anxiety and feeling overwhelmed, broken relationships, trauma, debt, feeling disconnected or helpless, etc.

Have you ever considered the possibility that better could be available and possible? You did the best you could with what you had and knew. But now you know more and have more experience (hopefully). Your convictions should reflect that.

I remember a friend once saying, “I may disagree with someone’s convictions, but at least they have some. I can respect that much.”

Are your convictions serving you well, or are they worn out and brittle, possibly even neglected?

The solution is not a temporary solution or accepting brokenness and chaos as normal. The answer is receiving the replacement; performing the upgrade. Maybe the same ones are adequate – they just need to be renewed.

Jesus spoke about this in Mark 2:21-22.

He is obviously not talking about physical power and electric capacity. He is teaching us that temporary solutions are insufficient. Sometimes the upgrade needed is so significant that a complete overhaul must be done. We should not merely accommodate progress and its demands, but upgrade the systems which facilitate and sustain future progress.

In our text, Jesus is saying I am not using the old you. I am making you new and using the new you.

To accomplish this, Jesus says he is going to replace the old with new. He is replacing with newer and better in every way.

But you have to cooperate.

You must take specific action to cooperate with how God wants to upgrade you. By this I mean allowing the Spirit of God to renew you, and replace certain mindsets, practices, lifestyles, and habits with better, holy, sanctified, God-honoring ones.

God is trying to upgrade your capacity so you can walk in newness of life and be ready for the future.

The new you, in Christ, is capable of increasing in capacity. You are capable of growing and becoming more and better than you were before.

He also wants to touch others through your life. He wants to increase your capacity so he can transform other people’s lives around you.

Start the upgrade by asking yourself these questions:

1.      One-year: What would have to be true in one year for you to know you’ve grown and matured? One concrete thing.

2.      One-month: What would have to be true in one month for the one-year growth to remain possible?

3.      Tomorrow: What are 2-3 actions you can do tomorrow that the person you’re becoming would do?