Life is...

MESSY!

Bill & I just finished up a discipleship study called Roots & Fruits. There was some really great stuff in this study. Stuff that I am hoping we can use when starting up our own discipleship training. Anyway...

One of the points that was made about being a disciple of Christ is that Jesus was not afraid to get messy with people in their messy lives.

And that reminded me of a message that one of our former preachers gave about the junk drawer. Everybody has one. Everything gets thrown in there. And it hardly ever gets cleaned out - sometimes for years. And isn't that how we handle our lives? It's a mess - everyone's life is a mess to some degree. There are issues in our lives that we just throw in a "drawer" and just refuse to deal with - sometimes for years.

So, what can be done about it? Well - the great organizer can come into our lives and convict us to clean it up. But we don't have to do it alone. If you've accepted Jesus as your Lord & Savior, and been baptized - you've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us of things to clean-up in our lives. But I digress as usual.

The main point of this posting is that we are a mess, and so are others. To be a disciple of Christ, we need to be willing to get messy with others. Don't shy away from sitting across the table of a homeless single mom to hear her story. Don't shy away from playing ball with someone that's of a different lifestyle than you. Don't shy away from someone who doesn't have the luxuries of life you do in hearing, seeing, speaking, or moving all parts of their body the way you do. Be willing to hold a hand, lend an ear, or walk with someone who just needs you to be there and be kind about it.

"Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assissi