Messy

Life can be viewed in one of three ways.  One way includes words such as clean, pristine, and proper.  The opposite extreme includes words such as messy, chaos, and ugly.  Somewhere in the middle is a combination of both extremes.  Nothing is quite as clean, pristine and proper as we would like.  At the same time it isn’t as messy, chaotic, and ugly as we imagine. 
 
One of life’s more difficult challenges lies in seeing junk while understanding the hope.  Many find it extraordinarily difficult, almost impossible.  When one is coming from this viewpoint it is a seesaw ride between bright skies and dark storms, almost as if one is instantly transported from one side to the other without warning.  Yet life is both.  I personally believe this will change in time.  In the interim, we should strive for this change.  I also see the “stuff” in your life and mine which isn’t as pretty, beautiful, and wonderful as the ideal scene would be.  Combining the two views is problematic, challenging, and messy.  Yet to live life, really, fully, and completely live life one must see both.
 
In the middle of it all, it is hard to see the good things in life.  God offers each hope.  God promises to always be in relationship with you and me.  God is engaged.  Yet the warning made centuries ago applies to you and me today. 
 
“Go and tell this people: Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it; look hard, but you won't catch on.” (Isaiah 6.9) 
 
There is a catch most fail to mention in the same breath.  The harshness of this reality can change with a single expression of acceptance.  When we accept God’s ongoing offer to help we find ourselves working side by side with the Spirit.  Individual effort becomes community.  Individual strength becomes shared strength.  Failure is transformed by Hope. 
 
You and I have the opportunity to live in the messiness of the world we find ourselves in.  We can carry Hope.  We can be agents of Opportunity.  It’s messy.  Let’s work together.