Living in the mess
Reading
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress;
he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
For he satisfies the thirsty,
and the hungry he fills with good things.
Reflection
When I procrastinate, I tidy. I organise each room, I fold the sheets, I tidy the drawers and get the laundry in order. It’s so beautiful. The trouble is that I tend to try to do with life what I have just done with my house – that is, get it all tidy and in order. And that’s not possible. We do what we can to make things better, but it’s equally important to learn to live in the mess that’s an inevitable consequence of living.
So what can we learn about ourselves through living in the mess? One of the things we note is that God is closer to the mess than we might imagine, and our messy lives and world are never out of the scope of God’s love and redemption. Indeed “mess” might even be part of God’s plan. He is always present with us in it.