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that day, the picture of my life would look more like graffiti scribbled on a wall with a few expletives rather than a beautiful portrait.
    “You’re not making me feel any better,” I said.
    “Not trying to make you feel better,” he said. “Trying to get you refocused. To paint a life masterpiece you first have to develop the eyes of an artist and learn to really see the things around you, into their soul, feel their pain.”
    Shifting in my seat, I tugged at my sweatshirt. “What about saving my marriage and family? I thought we were going to talk about that?”
    “Changing your marriage and family starts with changing you.”
    My eyebrows lifted. “Did you talk to Paige?”
    “No. Why?”
    “Never mind.”
    “And the first step to changing you is changing your vision. To do that, you need a little eye surgery.”
    “Does it hurt?” I asked.
    “It gets worse before it gets better.”

7
    Jim Ed lifted his hat and wiped his brow with his forearm. “I need you to try and keep your head up if you can,” he said while dipping his brush in the color-smeared pallet again then making a swirl on the paper. He looked up toward me, scratching his chin, contemplating. “When I’m looking at you in order to capture your soul, you know what I’m trying to see?”
    I shrugged my shoulders.
    “I’m not focusing on your outside. I’m trying to find the masterpiece inside you.”
    “Good luck with that,” I said, knowing all too well what was inside me.
    “You know who Michelangelo is?”
    “Yes, he painted the Sistine Chapel, right?”
    “Michelangelo was perhaps the greatest artist of the Renaissance period—a painter and a sculptor. Yes he painted some divine masterpieces, but he also worked chisel and stone. When asked where he drew the inspiration for his famous ‘David’ sculpture that stands in Florence, you know what Michelangelo said?”
    “You got me.”
    “He said when he first looked at that rough block of stone he knew David was imprisoned somewhere inside, and it was his divine calling as an artist to find him and set him free. So he began chipping away everything that wasn’t David. Michelangelo had eyes that saw past the surface into the soul. He saw that uneven, irregular, and imperfect stone… and that’s how God sees you, Adam. The first step in changing your vision is changing how you see yourself. There’s a David inside you, Adam, a mighty warrior. We’ve got to find him and set him free.”
    “I’m no David,” I said. “You need to talk to Eric.” I let out a cynical laugh. “He thinks he’s David and Samson combined.”
    “Who?”
    “Just some guy I know from church—perfect marriage, perfect kids, perfect life.”
    “That you know of,” said Jim Ed. “Trust me. He’s got issues too. Besides, David had plenty of issues in his life. He made a ton of mistakes and even committed some hideous sins. David wasn’t everyone’s hero by a long shot. Yet he was still a great warrior and a man after God’s own heart.”
    “Whatever,” I said, releasing another long breath of discouragement.
    “Hang with me, Adam. I think you’ll be glad you did.”
    “Keep going,” I said.
    “There were times when it seemed the whole world was against David,” he said. “The people closest to him abandoned him. They misunderstood him. I mean at one point, they wanted to string him up. And David had a heap of family problems—wives and kids who disrespected him. David brought a lot of it on himself too. He wasn’t known for his great fathering abilities. But in all of it, you know what David did?”
    “No.”
    “He encouraged himself in the Lord.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “At first glance it sounds simple, but when you break it down, it’s profound. In essence, it means David knew who he was and understood the source of his strength. He understood his real identity regardless what others thought of him or how rotten his life seemed. He understood his identity and his