The Miracle in the Mess

A few months after we moved into our house last year, we noticed that the tiles on the kitchen floor were coming up – literally. The glue had turned to dust and it was as if we had an air bubble under a few of them. We had someone come look at them and they said it wasn’t too bad of a problem and that they could fix it. Over the next week, I had men in my kitchen pulling up the problem tiles, cleaning them and gluing them back down. It took about a week altogether and left a fine layer of construction dust in my kitchen. 

Whether it is new construction or re-construction, construction is messy. It is an “it gets worse before it gets better” thing. If you have ever remodeled a room or added onto your home – you know that sometimes the final vision is the only thing that keeps you going through the inconvenience and temporary mess of it all. 

There is a story in Luke 5 where Jesus has been invited to a man’s home and unbeknown to the owner, a construction project is about to happen. The people were packed like sardines in his house listening to Jesus teach. Suddenly some dust begins to fall from the ceiling and is soon followed by chunks of the ceiling falling down. When the hole in the ceiling was big enough, a lame man was lowered through it by his friends. This was faith in action.  This was four friends who did whatever it took to get their friend in front of Jesus. This was faith in action. The friends made a hole in the roof and Jesus made their friend whole – spiritually and psychically. It was a miracle. 

Following Jesus is amazing. It is also inconvenient, uncomfortable, challenging and messy. After all the people left in awe and wonder, the owner of the house still had to fix the hole in his roof. 

We tend to think that following Jesus is like walking through a beautiful meadow at sunrise with the rays of the sun gently touching the tips of flowers and illuminating the air with the glorious shimmer of the morning.  The truth is that following Jesus is more like inviting people into your home so they can experience Him for themselves and then end up with a mess after they leave.  It is more like leaving your home and following Him to a place you have never been, doing things you have never done before and talking to people you have never met.  It is more like having Him do major spiritual construction in your soul that impact every relationship you have. It is never easy and always messy. But miracles are happening. Don’t let the messiness cause you to miss the miracles. God is doing a miracle in you. God is doing miracles in the people around you.

It is an “it gets worse before it gets better” thing. This is a spiritual construction project and Jesus is the General Contractor. He knows the final vision of what your heart, mind, soul and spirit will look like as His grace works miracles in you and through you. He knows how your life will impact others as you trust and follow Him. It is inconvenient and temporarily messy. It isn’t easy. It is amazing. 

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

I love the first sentence in the sacred text above, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view”. 

My dear friend, please stop looking at your life from a worldly point of view. You are called to be His. To live loved. To live the adventure. To clean up the messes, celebrate the miracles and do it all again tomorrow.

I love you and I am praying for you as you go after all Jesus has for you. May His vision for you give you courage and creative perseverance to deal with all the obstacles that will stand in your way as you trust Him.

 Your Beloved Ambassador and co-worker in Christ,

Cindy Grasso