Give up your old way of life
with all its bad habits.
—Ephesians 4:22
Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol, is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, described as “a tight-fisted, wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous, old sinner!”
“Merry Christmas, uncle!” shouts his nephew.
“Bah! Humbug!” growls Scrooge. “Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding!”
The ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, tells Scrooge that three spirits will confront him: Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.
Those visits transform the miserable miser into a happy, kind, generous man.
In a letter to his protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul described his previous life as a blasphemer, persecutor, and violent man—the worst of sinners (1 Tm 1:13,15)—but changed and saved by grace.
Examination of your past and present—and contemplation of your future—can be transformative.
Never too bad, too old, or too late to change.