It’s a good feeling to complete a goal you’ve had for some time. When you have to squeeze that goal into an already tight schedule, there is a sense of relief when it’s done.

Last summer Lily and I redid the deck at our cottage. We had all kinds of advice about how to get the old paint off – a huge, messy chore.

In the end, we used a liquid that was probably filled with all kinds of harmful and cancer-causing chemicals. It did a good job though. We may turn green and begin to glow in five years but we got the paint off.

Most people will then seal the wood with a stain of some kind, but before we did that we decided to clean the wood.

That’s right, good old water is not good enough to clean wood any more. You have to use another chemically-laden liquid to wash all that grit and grime out of the planks.

Well that worked too. It was amazing how bright the wood became. It took that grey, lifeless timber and we got it looking like we just chopped a tree down and sent it through the mill.

We were so impressed with how it turned out we decided not to stain it at all. Instead we are going to leave the deck unprotected. Can you believe that? Wood unprotected? There are probably laws against that but don’t tell anyone that’s what we did.

We figure that when it starts looking its age again (because right now it looks ten years younger than it really is), we will just clean the deck again with that rich chemical wash that seems to transform the wood back to its natural colour.

After doing all that, we also took the old railing off the deck and put on a new one, which really looks nice!

Last year at this time, we were proud of the work we had done. We were tired; it was hard work, but we felt really good … like we’d improved the cottage.

I like to take my time savouring those kinds of moments – like maybe for a couple of years or so.

But not Lily. She thought that it looked so good at our cottage, we should do the same thing with our deck at home. The idea was when we got back from vacation we would get busy on the home front.

What? Two decks in one year? I thought, “Who am I? A pastor or a guy who works on decks for a living?” … I put it off for the rest of the year.

But when this year began, Lily managed to sneak it on to our list of goals. We ended up being so busy, I even had to work on the deck on my birthday. But it looks great! … Lily wishes we had have done this five years ago. I wish we could buy a big ole retractable umbrella to give us a little shade on that deck.

Maybe that’s next year’s goal.

Here’s the thing: Set goals for growing in your relationship with God. Determine topics or books of the Bible you want to explore. This year I’m focussing on prayer. I’ve read four books on prayer since January. You might have to work hard – even sacrifice to accomplish those goals – but you are going to smile at the results when you reach them.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What more do you want to know about God or the Bible? Leave your comment below.