I love mess. Now, anyone who REALLY knows me, knows this statement is somewhat absurd. I grew up with OCD, my flesh overwhelmingly engulfed in perfectionism. Sit on my bed after I've just made it? I may have cried. Put an orange shirt in the green shirt section of my closet? Definitely would have thrown a temper tantrum. But it's true. I can't hide it anymore. I love mess.
It's tragic. It's beautiful. It breaks. It binds.
I think it's in our nature to want to hide our mess. And if we're not hiding it, we're finding ways to present it that make us sound less crazy.. more desirable.. like we've got it all together in spite of our mess or something.
But I believe that mess is the bonding agent in love.
It's what brought our need for a savior ["For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." Romans 3:23], what lead our Savior to the cross ["There is no greater love, than to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13], and what caused His heart to melt within Him as He hung bloody and mangled ["My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me." Psalm 22:14]. Our mess.
"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8
God's perfect love is just that. Perfect. Because He KNOWS us. He knows who we are and He knows what we need. He knows our mess and He chooses to dive into it with us. What a beautiful way to love! The only way we can even attempt to love each other as perfectly as our Heavenly Father loves us is by getting into each other's nitty gritty. Diving into the mess of each other's lives and walking through the trenches together.
Hi. My name is Kate. And I'm a mess.
I can't wait to be messy with my squad mates. I can't wait for them to be messy with me. And I can't wait to radically change the mess of this world with the testimony of our own messy lives.
Thanks for supporting me in spite of my mess, loving me through my mess, and praying that the mess wounds of my life become scarred stories of victory.
One Love,
Kate
Extra! Extra!
Here's a great story about a messy man who got off the hook for the mess he had made of his life all beacuse of the love of one Man:
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