I recently had a really long and hard night at work. One of the things I was most frustrated about was taking care of this teenage boy with poor hygiene. It was all I could do when I entered the room not to gag from the smell, and he had drains that drained blood from multiple sites of his body. His room was full of dirty clothes and half drank chocolate milk cartons. I'm ashamed to say that I immediately judged this guy subconsciously and tried to do my care as quickly as possible to get out of the room. He was such a mess.
If you are a nurse, it is likely that you find yourself in the midst of other people's messes all the time. And even if you are not a nurse, I'm sure that you meet messy people who frustrate you and annoy you- whose personal lives are messy, families are messy, or who live in never-ending drama.
I guess one of my questions is What do we do with the messes in our lives and the messes we encounter in the world around us?
Should we try to hide our messes so that they don't inconvenience others? Does piling all the messy clothes in the closet help make a cleaner room in the long run? How do we cope with the situations in our life that are complicated, dirty, or embarrassing?
If we look to God for wisdom and example, we will find that God- although not a God of disorder but of order- is not afraid of the messes we humans make of our lives. In Psalm 130 the Word says "You have searched me, Oh Lord, and you know me." God is not afraid to look directly at the mess in our lives- He sees it; so we have no reason to hide and pretend it's not there.
In the New Testament we see Jesus comfortable addressing the messes in others' lives. Instead of simply pointing them out though and condemning, Jesus cares. Jesus asks if he can help clean up the mess. In seemingly small catastrophes like a wedding running out of whine to people becoming demon possessed, Jesus lends a hand. And I believe as God followers we are asked to do the same.
Psalm 130:7 says "Where can I go from your Spirit or flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths you are there... Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."We need not be afraid of our messes or the messes of others, because we must remember that no place or person is too dark for God's light to shine there.
God doesn't only see our messes but He sees the potential in them to share His glory. In a way He loves it when we make messes and let Him help us, clean them up, because He desires to work with us- to teach us side by side how to walk in holiness.
We should worry when we feel "too cleaned up" and start judging others. We are deceived when we do not see the messes we make. God often has to remind us that our righteousness is like filthy rags. His standard of excellence is perfection and in contrast to His character of love- people will be messy and we are messy.
Embracing the messes in our personal lives opens an opportunity for growth and healing, spiritual and mental cleaning. Yet admitting that we are messes also opens up the opportunity to accept the messes others make around us more gracefully. If we refuse to acknowledge the mess, it will continue to grow bigger. We will become more critical of others and trust God less. Yet when we can look at our messes honestly, we can more clearly see God's love and grace for us through His desire to stand by us in the mess and help us clean up.
And when God comes to us in our personal mess. In the time when we are ashamed, when we smell bad, we are covered in vomit, others are disgusted of us and annoyed, yet God is there. It is that time when God comes over and embraces us with love, that He tells us "I'm going to be with you, in the mess. And I'm going to help you get through the mess." It's that time that we meet the depths of Jesus' love for us. It's that time when we see another dimension of our Savior.
And when God truly saves us from our biggest mess, we have a longing and an urge to love others the save way we have been loved. And we have the strength to take care of the people whose lives are messy, whose wounds are deep, and maybe even whose hospital rooms smell terribly.
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