The Exchange

At one time, trading cards was big business. My boys were never serious card traders, but we made our share of trips to the local sports cards’ store. The boys were well equipped with notebooks, sleeved pages, protective covers, and the such. Surely, we have a real keeper in all those collections!

O. S Hawkins wrote, “The secret of the Christian life is not that it is a changed life but an exchanged life.” I’ve been around long enough to remember the [now outdated] term “telephone exchange.” In the old telecommunication systems, human operators actually switched phone circuits to establish lines of communication between callers. Perhaps you remember dialing “0” for the local operator! When a person is born-again (saved, converted), control is surrendered to God; the Believer is “a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Hawkins reminds us the old man is counterproductive and powerless while the new man [in Christ] is productive and powerful! When trading sports cards, the object is to better your collection – give up one or more for a more valuable card. Obviously, there must be a sense of relinquishing something to improve your collection in the process. The changed life indeed is an exchanged life – we exchange the control of our lives for the life of blessing, controlled by God’s Holy Spirit. The use of human telephone operators are a thing of the past, at least in the same capacity, and so must the Believer’s old life be. Know the power of the exchanged life – know and live in His power!