In The Midst Of The Mess

photo credit: Coach_Bo

The email announcing  where the youth group was meeting read as follows…”be prepared for anything (meaning you may get messy!)”

When I read that to my son, he wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Josh has never liked to be messy. When he was a baby, just learning how to talk, he would point to something on the carpet and say, “FUZZ!” then look at me like I was supposed to do something about it. (I do admit to being a  tad overzealous in my vacuuming, as we had a Border Collie named Charlie at the time who was always shedding).

I am not exaggerating when I say that Josh was already wanting to use a spoon at nine months of age. I don’t have any photos of him “wearing” his birthday cake in his hair or on his clothes because he just never went there. All I ever had to do was wipe down the sticky icing from his hands and face and that was it.

So it was no surprise that the idea of getting messy at youth group didn’t appeal to him. Not that that will stop him from attending. He is a boy, after all.

As our discussion drew to a close, I said over my shoulder, “Josh, sometimes you just have to surrender to the mess.”

Those words stuck with me as I walked to the car to take the kids to school. I recalled my words from just the day before when I had been relating a painful situation regarding a loved one to my mom. After I told her the story, I found myself sighing and saying, “It’s all just such a mess.”

We all have messes in all of our lives.

Life is messy.

People are messy.

Not one of us gets through this life unscathed by pain.

Then, as I opened the car door, I looked up to see this stretched across the sky…

It was such a wonderful reminder of the fact that there is beauty to be found in our mess…because Jesus lives and moves and works and loves in the midst of it all.

That beauty is all around us if we have eyes to see.

However the most breathtaking beauty of all is found within the pages of our Bibles…for it is there that Jesus is revealed in all His glory and beauty. The thousands of promises He gave us there shine and sparkle like a brilliant flawless diamond set against a backdrop of black velvet.

If you find yourself in a mess this day, surrender to your Savior right in the midst of it. Then cling to His precious promises with all your strength.

If you do that, He will give you beauty  for ashes. He will transform your mess into your message and ministry. He will allow you to gaze on His beauty in a way you may have missed otherwise. He will tie all the loose ends together—if not here on earth, then in eternity—to His great glory and your highest good.

Jesus is Lord over all…including your mess. He knows what He is doing. He can untangle all the knots.

Creating masterpieces is His specialty.

Rest in that today.

Your mess is not bigger than your Savior.

Abandon yourself to His tender loving care.

Relinquish your desire for control over the situation. The only thing you can ever really control is your attitude and your focus.

Choose radical trust over debilitating fear.

Then watch to see what He will do.