5 Ways to Embrace the Messes

In the most famous story Jesus ever told (the Prodigal Son), the climax comes when the wayward son returns home and his father runs out and embraces him, mess and all (Luke 15:20). As followers of Jesus, how can we exhibit the heart of the father and embrace the mess around us? Here are five ways:

1). Embrace your own mess. The first and biggest issue for many Christians is that we never can embrace our own mess. We think we have worked ourselves to the place where we are better than other people. If we want to embrace the messes, we need to realize that we’re the mess. We may hide it better, we may look more like good church people, but we’re just as much of a mess as everyone else. That’s why when Jesus starts his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he starts by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit is to realize that you’re a mess, that you’re spiritually bankrupt without God.

2). Never get over how much Jesus has embraced you. This is why we sing about the cross constantly. It’s why we get together as a church several times a week to talk about Jesus. We need to keep his grace and his mercy in the forefront of our minds. It’s too easy for us to forget, to move past, to think we’re beyond it. We can never get over what Jesus did on the cross for YOU. You sinned, you deserve hell as punishment for your rebellion against God. There’s no way you could make it right. But Jesus came and took your punishment that you deserved. He did it because he embraced you, mess and all. We need to keep that forgiveness in the forefront. Jesus says in the book of Luke, “whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.”

3). See people through your Heavenly Father’s eyes. You can look at the messes in our community and see just that, a mess. They’ve made mistakes, they’ve broken promises, they’ve hurt people, maybe society has given up on them. But through the eyes of their Heavenly Father (that’s key), they’re a hurting child that needs help. They’re someone’s child, and yes they might be a mess, but they’re still a child of God. A church member wrote me recently, At the end of service, we were singing Come Ye Sinners. In the middle of the song I looked down at my 7 year old and just started crying. I love my children and would do anything for them. I know now, that’s the way the Lord loves me! I don’t know why it never clicked before now. 

4). Be family to someone who needs it. God is our Heavenly Father. As the hands and feet of Jesus, we’re called as believers to live out tangibly the love of the Heavenly Father to a lost and dying world. There are too many people out there without family, and we can be family to them. You can be a surrogate mother, father, aunt, uncle, to those that need it. Our society is so mobile that hardly anyone grows up with grandparents anymore. We desperately need people willing to pour into others and be that brother or sister, that parent, or that grandparent that God wants for all of us to have.

5). Love till it hurts, then keep loving. Not every relationship is going to be wrapped up with a shiny bow. Not every story is going to have a happy ending. When you embrace the messes, some of that mess spills over on you. It’s unavoidable. If you truly embrace the messes your life will become more demanding. You’ll be called to sacrifice more. Your life won’t be as predictable and manageable as you’d like. But it’s what Jesus has called us to do. And aren’t we glad that Jesus didn’t give up on us the first moment our lives got messy?

QUESTION: How else can we embrace the messes?