The Big Bold Barn

As many of you know, along with my life coaching business, my husband Brian and I own a home remodeling business. Our most recent remodeling adventure was to paint a barn. Painting barns usually do not fall into our 'home remodeling job description', but this was a special case for long time clients.

On approximately the fifth day of painting, I began to question my sanity and my decision to agree to do this job. I wanted to be engaging in something I felt passionate about. Coaching, creating, anything but painting this enormous red barn. I began to adopt a rather bad attitude, and felt my physical and emotional energy drain. Have you ever had an experience like this?

I know when my body is communicating with me like this, that it's time do some inner work, refuel and recharge. I began this process by taking time out to journal and meditate and then made a decision to stay alert for what was to show up next. As I read Romans 5 - The Message - appropriately titled 'Developing Patience', here is what stood out. When we experience troubles they will develop passionate patience in us. That patience forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In this alert expectancy we are never left feeling short changed, but the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything that God generously pours into our lives. I felt this was an apt description of what patience, integrity and abundance looks like. However, I still could not quite get my head around how this applied to me and painting this massive barn. I was definitely not feeling very patient or virtuous.

The next day I began to tell (okay, whine) to a dear friend about my lack of energy, my bad attitude, my wishing I were somewhere else (which by the way is NOT living in the present). She had an amazing revelation which inspired me so much that I felt compelled to share it with you. She posed the question: what if painting this Big Bold Barn - as she called it - was a metaphor for my life. Barns, of course, are big and can hold a lot of stuff; sometimes very valuable stuff. However, what if no one ever maintained the outside of the barn? It would eventually develop leaks, mold, rust, and decay. What would happen to all the abundance inside? Most likely, it would sustain damage.

As I was painting the next day, I began mulling this metaphor of the Big Bold Barn over in my thoughts. How does the inside of the barn relate to my life? I began to think about all the containers of abundance in my life, similar to all the valuable treasures inside of the barn. I have been blessed with loving family and friends, income, good health, opportunities to implement my passion in coaching, music and art and an opportunity to live in a beautiful area. Looking at it from this perspective, how could I possibly feel short changed?

I was then aware of how beautiful the barn looked with it's fresh, clean coat of red and white paint and how it kept the treasures inside protected and free from decay. It was then that I realized the significance of doing the maintenance work on this barn and how it relates to my life. It's important to develop patience and be alert to what God is up to in my life. Persistent repair and maintenance of my Spirit, my heart, my body and my mind are essential. In doing so, I am protecting the gift of abundance and at the same time allowing beauty to be created, inside and out.

What is the Big Bold Barn in your life? I'd love to hear your story.