Today my husband and I spent a few hours taking our youngest child out for a treat. We visited the local chocolate cafe and the serviette caught my attention. On it it said, “Better to have enjoyed and made a mess, than never to have enjoyed at all!”
Funny thing is I don’t particularly like mess. I would much rather everything is nice and tidy, and under control. I’ve had to put some, actually most of that personal preference aside having 6 kids, and a constant flow of people through our lives and home. But to be truthful I am better for it, because as the serviette said it often is better to have enjoyed and made a mess, than never to have enjoyed at all.
Why you may ask? Because people are messy, and that is actually okay. God knows that we need to express, talk, and create, and to really enjoy living, and He gives us space to do that. He wants us to love our lives and not live in fear, which only limits the enjoyment and experience of life.
If we allow ourselves to be governed by the need to control, and will only ever step out and try something new if we can guarantee the outcome, we may just end up knowing some serious regrets, and also suffocate the life out of those close to us.
Living a full overflowing life like Jesus talks about can’t be experienced if we aren’t prepared or open to a bit of mess. A little example of this is our family eating mangoes. It just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t get messy. Some things are enjoyed far more with mess! Just ask my husband and mango loving kids.
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I,( Jesus) came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows}” (John 10:10).
The other point to remember about people being messy is that we no doubt will all have moments, days, weeks or even months where we may experience the reality of feeling like a “mess”. All of us have “mess moments” when things are not great, when we feel a bit out of control and life isn’t going to plan. When God reveals to us our own “messiness”, and likewise where we need to be willing to help another “messy person”. Either way we have to be prepared to go out of our comfort zones, beyond the superficial, “How are you doing? Fine.”
God wants us to be willing to get “messy” with one another. To allow ourselves to be encouraged, and to encourage another.
He says, “Bear one another’s burdens”. (Galatians 6:2)
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up”. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
If you are feeling “messy”, be honest with yourself, with God and with others who love you. You are never alone in the messy department.
If you see someone in a mess, don’t just avoid, ignore or run away. Ask God what He wants you to do, to say, to pray. Sometimes it’s the simple things that make all the difference. And it’s always good to remember in the midst of messiness that “God is in the business of making our mess into a miracle.”
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. (Romans 8:28)
“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands”. (Psalm 138:8)
Prayer: Lord I’m so thankful for your grace towards me. When I find myself in a mess, you are there for me. Help me to trust you to help, and please bring people alongside me who I can trust and share with. May I have the same grace and compassion towards others who may be in a mess too. In Jesus name Amen.
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