New Coat

 

Remember a few weeks ago I shared the stripping of the deck story?  May I now share with you the painting of the deck story?  That’s correct, last weekend we found another two days of no rain, so we moved forward with the second part of our project, painting the deck.  We were going to go about this process with precision!  We went to the home improvement store, got six samples of different paints we wanted to try, painted them on the deck to see what we liked and on Friday evening, went to get our paint and supplies.  We woke up Saturday morning ready to go! 

By Saturday night, we were done with the banister.  Each spindle was painted with precision, and it looked great.  Sunday found us doing the floor.  With the sun beating down on us, the paint was soaked in by each deck plank, making for a very long day!  It was hard work and at the end, both of us were incredibly exhausted and sore, our legs and backs in pain from squatting or being hunched over all weekend.  Then our critical eyes looked at the deck and each other to share, “I think the color is a little off!”  It may be a tad greyer than we anticipated, but we both also knew we weren’t going to repaint it!  It looks great.  The journey was hard but the end result-awesome!

Once again, the process reminded me of our Lord and this Bible verse that I have come to love over the years.  When we decide to put off our old way of life, or rejuvenate our lives in Christ, there are many parallels to painting the deck!

Sampling – finding out what works.  When I need to get a “Jesus adjustment”, I find myself trying some new and different things to focus my attention to Jesus.  I may try different Christian music, read a study book from a different author, or join an online Bible study.  As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about diving into a book of the Bible that interests me.  Just as we tried a variety of paints, look at options that may tell you “That’s the one!”

Hard Work – put in the tough work.  Changing our focus is not easy.  Humans are creatures of habit and moving away from bad habits and establishing new ones is not easy.  It means making a commitment.  What if we had started the deck and by the second day said, “This is too hard.”  This is the same in our Jesus journey.  It may be hard; it may be exhausting.  Body and mind may be sore.  Yet, it is worth it to put on a new attitude in Jesus!

Critical Eye – it may not be perfect.  When I have embarked to put on something new in Jesus, I have grandiose ideas of what that is going to look like.  It NEVER ends up the way I thought it would.  If I decide on a daily prayer focus and I miss a day, my mind says, “You’ve failed.”  If I switch the radio channel away to listen to a different music genre, I believe I have failed.  Jesus doesn’t look at it that way, and neither should we.  We weren’t meant to be perfect, in ANYTHING that we do.  What is so wonderful about Jesus is He gets that, especially when we don’t get that.  He is waiting to put His loving arms around you to say, “I’m proud of you, let’s hop back on and see where the journey takes us.”

The journey of putting on a new attitude in Jesus is not always easy, but it is always worth it!  Is it time to put on a ‘fresh coat of paint’ in Jesus’ name?  Try a few things, put in the hard work, know that you will fail, but get back up again.  I’m sure the result will be AWESOME!

Dearest Jesus, as we journey to put on a new self in your name, help us with each step, guiding us closer to you. Amen!