What's a Paintin' Fool

For the last two and a half years of my life, I have worked as a maintenance guy at Journey Church in Norman, Oklahoma. One of the almost weekly tasks that we performed was painting. We painted every wall in the church, numerous times. There were times when I felt like all I did was paint. "I'm a paintin' Fool" became the answer when People would ask me what I did at Journey. The label began as a different way to say that I painted a lot. It became my life's identity.

One of the best aspects of my job was the people I worked with. My boss and the two guys I worked with on a regular basis became my brothers. God brought us together to encourage and challenge one another in our pursuit of Christ. It was not long after I absent-mindedly said that I was Paintin' Fool, that us for maintenance guys became known as The Paintin' Fools.

To say that I am Paintin' fool is to say that I am a servant of Christ. That I realize that everything I have and everything I get to do is solely because of God's grace. That I am willing to do whatever the Lord asks of me. Typically, a maintenance job will be on the low rung of the career hierarchy. It requires humility to do the tasks that no one else wants to do. It is this same humble attitude that I want to posses as I pursue Christ as a Paintin' Fool outside of Journey.