What a mess!

 

I'm just gonna go ahead and be very cheesy as I begin this so here goes, "Where there is a mess there is a message." Even I am cringeing as I type this because we all know I'm too wholesome to be this corny but just follow my train of thought for the next few paragraphs and you will see that the corny, cheesy line was of utmost necessity. I am about to go motivational speaker on y'all so buckle up and be ready to take my advice because its good advice (and this is solely based on the fact that I said so, my word is basically law on this blog).

I left the house quite early this morning because I had a couple of errands to run and also a number of places that I needed to be at. Naturally, I made a mess as I was getting ready because who ever knows what to wear all the time? Who here can say every single day their first outfit choice is the perfect one? I couldn't pick what to wear because nothing felt right. Nothing was feeling quite like Amy today so I made a mess picking this, wearing it then removing it and throwing it on my bed over and over again. When I got back to my room many hours later that mess welcomed me and it was telling a story. It took me back to the morning and how I tried so many outfits and they didn't feel right. I ended up wearing something that I know was perfect! It was in my favorite colors and it had me feeling confident the whole day. All was well that ended well after all!

When I walked into the kitchen this evening I also saw another mess. I saw three bowls that looked like they had had yogurt in them and some bananas. I also saw three cups by the side that seemed to have had water in them. It was clear my little niblings had some yogurt with banana slices in it and also had some water before going to bed. The dust on the floor indicated that people had been moving in and out of the house. The pile of damp clothes indicated that there may have been some rain and the clothes couldn't be hung outside to dry anymore. 

In case you were getting bored please note that I am not just telling you about my day there is a point to all this oversharing that I'm doing. Every single place that had a mess in the house has a story behind it. There is no mess that is there just because. There always is a reason for the mess. No mess just exists and continues to exist infinitely because we all naturally gravitate towards cleaning up messes. There is no way (unless if you are clinically insane) that a normal human being can co-exist with a mess everyday and just choose to live with that mess and make it normal without being compelled to clean it up. My question now is, "Why do we get so comfortable with the messes in our personal lives?" Why do we think its okay to continue to exist side by side with that mess without cleaning it up?

Okay maybe I've rushed a little bit. To begin with, why do we think our messes define us and they cannot be cleaned up? When our houses are messy we clean them up but when there's a little mess in our lives its okay because that's just who we are? Make that make sense. If you can clean the mess in your house and at the end of the cleaning session it's sparkling clean and it smells fresh does that mean your house is a dirty house just because there was dirt in it? Do you start calling your house a dirty house everyday just because that one day you had over twenty people in it and they left a mess? Do you not clean it up and admire what a good job has been done because the mess is gone? Why then do you define yourself by your mess? What about all those other amazing things that you are? Why are they not defining you?

The message in the mess is not that you are a mess. The message in the mess is that it happened but you cleaned yourself up and that is no longer you. The mess may remain a reference point but it should not define you. Take that step, clean that mess up. Just because you stayed in it for too long doesn't mean it cannot be cleaned up. There is hope yet for you. All you need to do is clean it up and move forward, on a clean slate. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,  or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. The part in red reminds us that we are not our messes because we were cleansed and made holy and made right with God by calling on the name of Jesus and by the spirit of God! If you didn't believe me when I said you're not your mess then believe God. Believe what his word says! That mess isn't you. It tells the story of you but it does not define you.