One morning, a renowned painter known for his exemplary paintings was at his workshop when he received a call from the president to do a painting on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings in the city. This was the chance of a lifetime. The painter could not sleep that night visualizing how he would do the painting to impress the president. The day came and the painter was ready to begin his work. He was given an explanation of how the painting will look.
The painter began his work carefully with all his attention on the paintwork. After four hours of intense and accurate focus he finished his work. Just to be sure that the painting was perfect, he stepped back to admire it from a distance. He was so happy with his work that he couldn’t stop admiring and he kept moving backwards, the further he moved back, the clearer the image became. Every step backwards was a more dangerous than the last because he was moving towards the edge of the rooftop.
A cleaner on the rooftop doing his work saw how the painter was moving backwards dangerously. He shouted a warning to the painter that there was a drop behind him but all his concentration was on the painting. The cleaner realised that he couldn’t help the artist since by the time he got to him he would have fallen because the painter’s mind was fully on the painting. He then decided to pour water straight onto the painting. The painter saw the water and was in anger he ran toward the painting and away from the cliff his life was saved.
In life too often we focus on the things that are draw us away from the purpose we were created for. For some of us, what we want or what we can do has distracted us from our true purpose of life. Occasionally, just like the painter, we walk towards the rooftop edge that could cause great injury and destruction to our lives. Just like the painter, we all need a cleaner who has the audacity to pour water on our painting and cause us to come away from the edge. Think about it, were it not for cleaner, the painter would have lost his life. He might have lost this painting but he could still paint another one.
Let us focus on our purpose and grow in it.
Let us be open to situations that will redirect us to the things we need to do.
Let’s put our trust in God so that all the rest can be added unto us.
Magdaline ’11