Paint

I finally got around to start painting some of the walls in our new home. I’ve come to realize that I enjoy painting, but could never do it for a living. No matter how motivated I am when I start, I get to a point when I’m finished even before I am finished. I can only tape and cut and roll and brush for so long before I start to feel trapped in painter’s purgatory.

In spite of this I like to paint because painting is an easy way to make a house feel more like a home. We paint to cover up what was. We paint to hide what has been. We paint because for $18 a gallon we can make our homes feel a little newer, no matter how old they are.

However, there is a big difference between painting to make something seem newer and painting to cover-up a flaw. If you try and paint over a crack in the wall or peeling paint, no matter how much paint you use the flaw underneath will still show through. To truly make it new, you would have to fix the crack or scrap the old paint off and then paint.

The problem is that we often try and do this very thing in life. There are areas of our lives that are flawed and imperfect and rather then deal with the true issue we try and cover it up. We cover it up with our pretend smiles when we really are feeling depressed, or when we make up excuses every time we let someone one down. Worse yet we often act like there is nothing wrong in a relationship when in truth we know we’ve caused someone pain by our words. And the saddest thing is that we really believe no one can see who we really are underneath, but the truth is it always shows through. Always.

Every one of us has flaws. We need to accept this fact and rather then try and pretend they are not there, deal with them so that we can change and stop trying to cover them up.

I resonate with this verse in Colossians because it deals with this. God calls us to live authentically before Him and before others. When we do we experience the transformation and therefore the renewal He wants for us, not the cover-up we are so good at.

“Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your new Creator and become like him.” Colossians 3:9-10

It’s almost as if this verse is saying that we are all like walls full of cracks and flaws, but when we stop trying to cover it all up and hand God the paint and brush, he truly starts to make us new. New with His character. New with His life. Renewal that only comes from Him.

God’s not finished with me and you just like I’m not finished with the painting in my house. Three rooms down and only ten more to go