Why Is It So Hard?

     One of the projects I was going to get done last weekend was to paint the bed in Brittne’s room. The bed was natural wood with spaced planks for the headboard and foot board. I got it from one of my best friends when we were in Montana. It fit into my Montana décor but it hasn’t fit in to well in my current decorating style. I love black furniture so I decided to paint it black. Like everything in my fantasy world, it was going to be a quick and easy process. And, like always I had to leave my fantasy world and enter into reality where it is not easy and usually a big pain! I decided to buy high quality spray paint. I thought this would get in between the planks easier and would not show brush strokes. I even bought two cans of primer to go with my two cans of paint. That gave me one can of primer and one can of paint for each the headboard and foot board. The paint can was the kind you squeeze a trigger which was going to help my fingers which just can’t endure normal spraying. I got through the primer, and then had problems with both cans of paint. One ended up leaking all over me and then I ended up needing three more cans. Back to Lowe’s I went, with paint all over my hands and arms. I decided that I was not buying the expensive can of paint again, so I bought the more reasonably priced one in the same color; black satin. After finishing the bed and with numb fingers, I noticed there was a slight sheen difference in the paints and told myself that it wouldn’t matter out of the sunlight and in the room, but in my heart, I knew I was doing my normal thing of settling for the quick and easy. When I went back to Lowe’s for the spray paint, I was going to get a quart of regular black paint for the side boards and the dresser but I found this great black stain with polyurethane and the sample looked wonderful and just like paint. That is what I bought. When I got home from work today and looked at the bed, it looked very dull. I decided to use the stain on the side boards and it did not go on or look like paint, it looked like dark stain. It did have a shine though, so I painted the bed with a coat of it and thought I would be done. Well, I learned in my Interior Design classes that when you go with the flow, you can have some great creations. I let my creativity flow and decided to use the stain on part of the bed and the black paint on the other part and to mimic the pattern of the bed, on the dresser. In a way, I am two toning the furniture! However, the stain was a little more aged looking than the paint. I decided the paint needed to have an aged effect as well. So, I sanded down the edges. Now, I am going to have to add another layer of stain/polyurethane because I sanded the sheen off the paint. At this point, I don’t know when I will finish the bed. I can tell you though that I will finish and I will love it when I do!
     I often regress to my fantasy world and think that my spiritual growth will be quick and easy. It doesn’t take long to be forced to reality and the realization that it is never easy! What seems to be simple ends up being one set back after another and becomes a long process. I once decided that I was going to spend a year learning discipline in my life. That year has become a twenty year challenge. I am better than I have ever been, but I have not completely accomplished my goal. However, as long as I do not quit and I keep persevering, I will conquer. At times, that hurdle can actually be used to grow us in a deep and unique way if we will not run from it; but embrace it as God’s molding.
     Do you get frustrated when your spiritual goals do not happen quickly or easily? Do you embrace the hurdles and let them mold you for God’s unique purpose? May we all keep our eye on the end results and not on the difficulties! May we remember that we grow through the journey, not by quick and easy ways!

Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us?  When the time comes we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming. But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing,and that's what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions.

2 Corinthians 5:8-9