Move Toward the Mess: Curing Boredom in the Christian LifeSample

We’re All in the Mess Together

This is vitally important. Not much good will happen when we move toward the mess if we don’t get this right. We Christians are in the mess. We don’t need to drive across town to find it. We don’t need to visit our unchurched neighbors across the street to encounter it. We need only look at our own heart, our own family, our own life. If we decide to follow Jesus, the first mess we will encounter is our own.

Of course, the messy details will differ from person to person. Some things are illegal and others are not. Some things have a moral stigma about them, while others are winked at by our culture. What they all have in common is the potential to twist and warp the human spirit. It’s just that some work more quickly than others. But they all eventually consume us.

In one case, the struggle might be with crack. In another case, the struggle is with anger. Some struggle with alcohol. Others struggle with envy. Some are murderers. Others are gossips. Some are addicted to heroin. Others are addicted to using credit cards. One person might self-medicate with promiscuous sexuality. The other uses ice cream. Some people are violent. Others are mean spirited. They have never touched another person in anger. But their tongue causes more pain than any punch ever would. The apostle Paul, in his famous letter to the church in Rome, puts it this way: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

So the truth is we don’t reach out to addicts as people completely free of addiction. We don’t attempt to help the poor as people free from financial struggles. We don’t reach out to the lonely as people who never feel alone. We don’t share the gospel as people who have allowed the gospel to conquer every sin in our lives. We don’t reach out to messy people as people who have their lives all together. Yes, we are gradually being changed by God’s love. But often the process is agonizingly slow. And we don’t like that.

Grace is the good news, the great news, the “Holy cow, I can’t believe this!” news for all of us. We have been forgiven. God is no longer keeping score. Christ’s death and resurrection took care of all that. We have been pardoned. We are free. When this sinks in, peace begins to pour into our souls. We experience a sense of relief. God is bigger than the mess. And that confidence enables us to invest in things like acquiring self-control. It’s not so we can earn God’s favor. It’s because we already have it.