Life isn’t easy. Most of the time it’s a struggle. It’s often quite messy. And like most, I’ve had my share of messy…been there, done that and got the t-shirt. In this case, I really did get the t-shirt and it says “Thankful, Grateful, Blessed”. And it couldn’t be more true…I’m thankful, blessed and grateful for messy.
It’s profound how different my life is when I embrace the messy instead of fighting against it. When I welcome the struggle as part of my story and view it as an opportunity to grow and learn and be better.
Sometimes messy looks like a step family with broken people trying to fashion a new kind of family from bits and pieces of broken hearts that don’t quite fit at first. Broken can be mended, but sometimes the glue gets all over the place before messy is made into beautiful.
Sometimes messy looks like a hard marriage, when it seems like it would be so much easier to leave, to move on, to start over. But deep down you know that you take yourself with you wherever you go and leaving only creates more broken and even more messy.
Sometimes messy looks like the child you raised, who is now a teen caught in the ugliness of drug addiction. There are days you think that it can’t possibly get better, but with time and recovery, you see that there is a process that brings hope and healing and more wisdom than you ever thought you’d possess.
Sometimes messy shows up in the day-to-day routine…the stress of rallying and corralling kids, errands and bills and home repairs that stress the budget. Too little sleep and many times even less rest. When tempers flare and days seem like they’ll never end.
But here’s the rub….I am thankful, grateful, blessed that God has allowed me to walk the road of step family, a hard marriage, addiction and daily struggles…the messy…because it is there that I find my purpose. My calling. And my need for God. It is there that I am equipped to make this journey with others and offer hope and encouragement.
No matter what messy looks like for today, I can rest in knowing that God will use my own unique messy to cause the fruit of the spirit to flourish and become real to me. I can be love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And all of these absolutely good things in my life are birthed from walking through messy.
Yes, I’m grateful for messy!
