Orange Barrels
- Jeff Kent
- Apr 20
- 2 min read
It’s that time of year when the orange barrels and cones appear on the highway. Everyone knows what that means: TROUBLE! Well, maybe not, but they mean road work or construction of some kind is ahead. Perhaps repairing potholes (we hope) or resurfacing or bridge maintenance, etc. But something old, worn and in disrepair is being replaced with something new and better. It might mean traffic delays (Rats!) or changes in traffic patterns, et al. So we know to slow down and be extra alert.
Sometimes I think it would have been good if God had made a provision for us as Christians to deploy “orange barrels” around us. After all, we are under construction! Maybe we could wear orange barrel or cone hats. We can imagine all sorts of styles of those. Maybe a shirt or jacket with orange barrels emblazoned on the front and back. There could be orange barrel earrings and ties with orange barrels. At this point, you might be thinking that Jeff’s been sniffing too much of that fresh asphalt out on the highway.
However, we Christians are really under construction - works in progress. Paul tells his readers that they are to “lay aside the old self” and to “put on the new self.” That means the old, sinful stuff must be torn out, ripped up and dismantled. That’s not an easy task. The old lifestyle must go: bad habits, foul language, selfish purposes, impure motives, lusts of the flesh, and a whole host of other things. Hard work. Painful. But it’s got to be done if we’re going to please our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Then the new must be put in place. New outlooks on life, new reasons to live, new priorities, good works, fruit of the Spirit, and a whole lot more. It’s not easy to learn and put into practice all those new things, but it must be done. A lot of times we don’t get it right. We mess up. We still sin. We hurt others. Thus, the need for the orange barrels. CAUTION! Under construction. Be careful!
Perhaps if we wore the “orange barrel” gear we’d be more likely to be more patient with each other and more forgiving. We would recognize that we’re all “under construction.” What say you?
><> Jeff
Comments