Isn’t it time to paint the barn?

Some people believe in making New Year resolutions and have done so most of their lives. It’s a way to launch into a new year with renewed vigor to do something with their lives.

Others scoff at resolution makers. These people pursue goals in other ways.

And some people don’t think much past today, they respond to life’s circumstances as they unfold.

Let me suggest that it is important for us to at least have a real sense of purpose for our lives, one that can provide direction and promote a productive life. Perhaps this can be better understood from the following story …

The story is told of a farmhand who had worked for a married couple for several years. As time went on, the couple grew older and older and they couldn’t do as much they had, so the farm began to look a little shabby. The paint on the barn was peeling. The fences had holes in them and slats were loose. The gravel road had potholes in it. Shingles on top of the farmhouse were beaten and weathered and needed replacing. But as the farmhand made his way to milk the cows each day, he thought, “What is that to me? It’s not my farm.”

Then one day the farmer and his wife asked th efarmhand to come for dinner. They told him how much he had meant to them. Then they explained to him that they had no children to inherit the farm, so they wanted to give it to him when they died.

The next day, when the farmhand was walking to the barn, he noticed the paint on the barn was peeling. In a few days he’d painted the barn and fixed the fence, and in the next few weeks he was putting a new roof on the farmhouse and putting new gravel on the road.

Why would he do that? What made the difference in his attitude? He was now an heir. And as a son he began to treat the old farm different than he ever had before.

In similar fashion, you and I are also heirs …

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering,” Romans 8:15-17.

Why do we not just wander aimlessly through life but give prayer, thought, and planning to our being? Because we are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ! In that we find our purpose and a motivation to live productively.

As you enter the New Year as a child of God and one of His heirs, what direction and motivation does that relationship and position provide you?

It’s time to paint the barn …

Scotty