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"The
way of the spiritual
life begins where we are now in the mess of our
lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives
is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual
life will remove our flaws but because we let go
of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one
who is present in the tangledness of our lives." (Mike Yaconelli,
Messy Spirituality, 2002)
Connection before
Perfection
The mess of our lives hardly seems
like the ideal environment for spiritual formation.
A messy divorce, broken relationships with
our kids, fractured friendships, failed career efforts, and
all our regular hurts, habits, and hangups may drive us
to abandon the
quest.
Don't spiritual people have order, serenity,
wholesomeness, and all the fruit of the Spirit in
flourishing abundance?
Folk whose lives run smoothly and successfully
can rejoice. But the rest of us deal daily with stress,
sickness, dirty laundry, crying kids, conflict, fear,
anger, envy, and insecurity. In the midst of this
"messiness" we may feel unworthy of God's attention or
blessing. We presume His love is as fickle as our own;
blessing the blessed and frowning on the
rest.
But the spiritual life -- the deeper Christian
life -- usually begins amidst failure and frustration,
because we find ourselves desperate for Christ. While we
may doubt His interest in us, or hesitate to breathe His
name once more because of our inconsistency, in our
hearts we know that our connection with Him is our only
real
hope.
"Apart from Me you can do nothing." (John
15:5)
We must not assume that tidiness and orderliness
in our lives make God attentive to us. While He
desires our personal transformation, connection tops His
priority list. And our connection -- our simple walk
with Him -- makes transformation
possible.
Unfortunately, we often reverse
this order and assume that we must sort ourselves out before we can
enter His Presence. The Prodigal Son made the same mistake.
Yet, Jesus defined eternal life primarily in terms of
connection.
"This is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and the Son whom You sent."
(John
17:3)
The Lord wades with us through the tangledness
of our lives, not just to fix but to fellowship. He
does not turn away from our brokenness, but empties
Himself -- over and over again -- to walk with us and work
within
us.
When our fallenness seems most apparent and our perfection seems so
distant, a simple "Come, Lord Jesus" -- the
cry to re-connect --may prove surprisingly
refreshing.
In HOPE
-
David |
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