Does the Barn Need Painting?

     Dwayne and I have had a joke for over twenty years. It goes like this, “if the barn needs painting; paint it!” You might not get it at first. It refers to make-up! Trust me; it was a lot funnier twenty years ago, when I really did not need to paint 'the barn'. It was only to give the barn a little glow: to accentuate it’s good features! Well, after twenty plus years, the barn NEEDS painting. It is hard for me to stand before the early morning mirror and take in the shape the barn is in! I have an age spot on the side of my jawbone in the shape of a heart. Isn’t that sweet? Then I have roseshia. This gives my chin and my nose a beautiful red color. In fact, if I get hot or my paint wears off, my loving family has a nickname for me: Rudolf! Also, the barn has some cracking going on. I have little cracks around my mouth, eyes, and forehead. Okay, I have gullies on my forehead, not cracks! Lastly, I think my eye lids have lost weight without enough exercise because they are saggy! Wish I could move some of my stomach fat to my eye lids! To top it all off, those pimples that visit young girls, that never visited me, finally found my address! So, you will rarely catch me running to the store without my make-up. If you do, you will notice the glow of the nose first! I have to realize that my face is changing! I need to remember what my face is like today, so I can buy the right make-up that primes over those new challenges. It is not the same face as it was twenty or thirty years ago. The barn with paint may look pretty, but it really just covers up the real barn!
     Many people use church as their make-up. They get all cleaned up to go to church and look good. They would never let their real life, their real trials, and their real heart show to those around them. It is a place they can feel good about themselves. The teaching they hear, doesn’t penetrate too deeply; that may bring attention to themselves and they may be found out. Church is something they use to cover up flaws, not something that heals and changes the flaws. These people start to believe they are what they portray to be at church. They forget who they really are; a sinner, messed up, and in need of a Savior . . . just like the rest of us!
      Do you remember who you really are? Do you use church to cover up or help heal the real you? Does the teaching you hear penetrate into your soul? Do you allow it to change even the smallest flaw? Though we usually do not like facing reality, we need to stand before the Lord completely open and vulnerable, so He can heal and change what He sees fit! When we lose our perspective of who we are without Jesus, we can become self righteous. When that happens, our relationship with Jesus is hindered and we lose our teachable spirit. At that point, our spiritual growth comes to a standstill. Who wants to their relationship with Jesus to be in a standstill? Wouldn’t you much rather it be moving forward;  then remember who you are in the mirror!?

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-
he will be blessed in what he does.

James1:22-25