PAINT & POLLYFILLER
Did you know that there are a lot of spiritual insights that can be gleaned from polyfiller and paint? I know what you're thinking. Grant's finally got nothing interesting to write about so he's reaching for story straws; gasping for literary air. What could be interesting about fixing and painting a few walls?
Well, it's true that painting and filling are pedestrian, but just 'cause a subject is mundane doesn't mean that it can't also be profound, right? I mean, life is filled with the mundane. It's day-to-day routine; it's schedules and bag lunches, so why not seek spiritual insights from the ordinary? Hey, if spiritual insight only comes from the mountaintop moments, then we'd all be a bit short on our insight-o-meters, wouldn't we?! Besides, just look at the example of our Lord. He used shepherds and sheep, fields and flowers; seeds and sowers to get his insights across. I'm only following the Master's methodology!
Ok, so what's all this about painting and polyfiller? Well, I am in the process of moving my office. Last week, Sheila and I got some paint and some carpet and we set out to convert an unused classroom into my new office. After removing a blackboard and filling some holes and some cracks, we started to cover the rather bold blue with a nice-in-the-can-yellow. What's a nice-in-the-can-yellow? It's a yellow that somehow changes from yummy to yucky when it made the move from can to wall. Maybe it has to do with room temperature, or oxidation or some such thing. Regardless, after the first coat of yellow, we had bright blue showing through a not-so-mellow yellow!
Luckily, Sheila thought of a light creme yellow leftover from the last time we painted. So, she fearlessly mixed the two. Voile! The yellow was tamed into a beautiful, creamy, cheerful color that was exactly what I wanted. So here is insight number one — life in the can (not "on the lamb") isn't the same as life on the wall! The life we chose, the life we pick, just doesn't turn out the way we want it to when it gets slapped on the wall. Take any life out of it's safely sealed environs and expose it to the world's walls, and you're going to be surprised.
Think of this as my speech to this years' graduates. You're about to open the can of your life and for the first time, you're going to be out on your own, away from home, away from all that is familiar. Trust me, life will throw you a few surprises. As you mix with the world, life will change. Things will happen that you could never have prepared for. Stuff will surface that will change everything. What can you do about it? The only thing I can suggest is mix your in-the-can-life with your faith-in-the-Lord, then when the paint hits the world's wall, it may not be what you thought it was going to be, but neither will it be ugly or disappointing! Trust me. Or better yet, trust Him and you'll end up with a life better than you wanted; with a surprise or two!
The next thing I noticed about fixing up the new office is that once your walls have holes and gouges, you just can't make them perfectly smooth again. Oh, you can fill the cracks with polyfiller and then carefully sand the spots down smooth and flat. But as soon as that paint is slapped on, you'll notice that it's still not as smooth or as flat as the surrounding area. Now, I concede that there has to be better fillers than moi, but still, I doubt very much that anyone is good enough to restore perfection to a piece of damaged drywall.
I bet you can guess the application, can't you? Next time you look at the dips and bulges in your walls, think of sin. We start life with a smooth wall, no cracks, no holes, no gouges. Then, after a while, oops, bang, ouch! Pretty soon we have some damage. A big crack there, a small hole there. No matter how hard we try to fix the holes, our perfection is gone forever. A fresh coat of paint, a new leaf turned, might make things look a bit better, but the wall's still less than perfect. That's why we need the perfection of Jesus. His perfection is willingly offered to all us hole-in-the-wall types. It is offered by grace, through faith (Eph 2:8).
Finally, my last insight has to do with tools. Sheila and I are somewhat cheap, which means from time to time we get reminded that buying cheap stuff really doesn't pay. In the case of our latest pigment production, we bought some less than premium paint and some downright cheap dollar store rollers and brushes. The paint didn't cover the old color on the wall and the roller and brushes made everything we did a royal pain! If you want to do a good job; if you want to save time, effort and money, you have to invest in good quality tools.
What's the application here? Well, just like cheap tools, cheap faith is ultimately frustrating. It seems to me that people naturally look for spiritual shortcuts. They just don't want to invest the time or the effort into developing a deep relationship with Jesus. Instead, they think a personal encounter with a new church, or a new book, or a new preacher, will lead to the spiritual fast lane. But spiritual growth has nothing to do with the right church, or the right experience and/or the right book. Instead, it has everything to do with submission to the Lordship of Christ, with the dedicated study of God's Word, with humble sacrifice, with commitment to prayer. There is no such thing as cheap faith — either you pay the price of really giving your life to Christ, or you end up with a frustrated faith.
My new office looks great. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than what I had before. My life in Christ is much the same. It's not perfect, either. I fumble; I fall; but it's infinitely better than my life was without Him. Better yet, I am promised that my new life, my eternal life won't be this life with a new coat of paint and a few cracks filled. No, it will be completely NEW! I will be a new creation, made perfect through Christ!
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Phil 3:12)
If you have any comments or thoughts, please click on my name at the bottom of this page and write me.
