The Spiritual Discipline of Walking into the Mess
Have you ever looked at a mess and felt completely overwhelmed by it? Maybe you walked by your kid’s room and had to shut the door because of the pile of dirty clothes, unmade bed, and other unidentified objects almost sent you into a downward spiral? Or maybe you avoid that one room in your home that is the place that seems to accumulate the “I’ll deal with that later” pile? Or maybe you’ll relate to my recent experience when I walked into my garage to see a pile of discarded recycling, kids’ beach towels and beach shoes, bikes, a reusable bag with who knows what in it and other random piles and felt completely overwhelmed (picture included). And perhaps you’ll further relate to the fact that I got into my car and drove away. Leaving the mess and the stress it caused behind (and at the time of writing – that mess is still there, to be clear. I promise that is on tomorrow’s to do list)!
While we may all have different standards of cleanliness (please do not judge mine by the state of my “mom van!”), I think it is easy to say that we do not like messes. We do not like the disgruntled feeling we get when we see a mess. A mess represents that something must be done with it. A mess is something that causes us to pause our current momentum and deal with some thing that might be difficult. It requires time and energy to clean or organize a mess. It means stepping outside the routine of that moment to deal with something that feels burdensome and maybe even overwhelming. So, we avoid the mess. We take the pile of discarded grown-out of shoes and throw it in a bin to sort through later. We take the pile of unopened mail and stuff it into a drawer. If we don’t see the mess then maybe it will disappear on its own. Maybe it will resolve itself when it is finally out of sight. Even though we know this is not true, we hope it will be so.
When I was a kid and my parents would tell me to clean up my room before I could go to a friend’s house, I would stuff the things from the floor into every crevice possible to just make my room appear clean. Under the bed went the books and clothes. The dresser drawers were stuffed with shirts from the floor – with little care for whether they were clean or dirty. I’d kick stuffed animals and toys into the closet, praying that the doors would close. When I would look back at my room, I would feel pretty proud of myself for such expedient cleaning. At least until my mom or dad would walk in and look under the bed or open the closet door and experience an avalanche of stuffed animals. But, for that brief moment – out of sight would mean that the “mess” was dealt with.
And while our cleaning skills *hopefully* improve as we enter adulthood, this idea of avoiding “messes” by pushing them out of our minds or sightlines – this idea remains. That conflict you had with a friend that you’ve pushed under the surface, but still needles your heart. The anxiety that creeps in your mind late at night, but you do your best to shut it out. The painful memories from your childhood that you think you should be over by now so you keep the emotions at bay. The unpaid bills, the reoccurring issue in your marriage, the expectations from your family, the relational challenges at work – our lives are filled with messy situations or circumstances. It is the reality of living in a broken world; of living in the “not yet.”
The reality of messes in our world and in our lives means that we must make a choice when we come upon a mess. Just like I made a choice when I observed the mess in my garage, when we encounter messes in our lives, we make the choice to either avoid the mess or to wade into it and address it. And while avoiding the mess may seem the easier choice at first, what we also know from experience is that messes tend to grow and fester into something bigger and harder to address.
During His ministry, Jesus was an expert in wading into messes. Think about it – almost every encounter Jesus had with others was lovingly walking into with their “messes.” Whether it is the story of Zacchaeus, or the Woman at the Well, or healing the sick, or drawing the line in the sand protecting a woman from her accusers – Jesus was in the business of uncovering and addressing the conflict or darkness that existed. One story of healing that describes Jesus’ loving willingness to step into our “mess” is depicted in the Gospel of Mark. In Mark 1, Jesus encounters a man with leprosy. At that time in history, leprosy was a disease that carried immense social and religious stigma. People with leprosy were cast out of their communities and were deemed “untouchable.” Communities literally pushed people with leprosy away – fully committed to this inhumane concept of “out of sight” then “out of mind” and potential contamination. This background into the injustice experienced by people with leprosy helps us understand Jesus’ sacrificial love and intentionality when he encountered a person with leprosy as described in Mark, Chapter 1. The story begins in verse 40:
“A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.” Mark 1:40-42 (NRSV)
I love the choice the man with leprosy posed to Jesus – “If you choose, you can make me clean.” With that statement the man acknowledged that this was a difficult, messy situation. The man knew the societal stigma that he carried, that most Jewish people at that time would have avoided him at all costs. But there must have been something about Jesus that gave this man the courage to approach him and present him with the choice: Jesus, will you choose to step into this mess? Will you choose to make me clean?
And Jesus’ response? His response should take our breath away. Jesus doesn’t only make the choice to step into the mess, but Jesus does so with abundant love and acceptance because he touches the man. This person who had been deemed untouchable by his culture; Jesus makes a specific point to touch him. Could have Jesus healed him without touching him? Absolutely. But Jesus waded further into the mess of the injustice, the inhumane practices and distrust that this man had experienced from others and replaced all of that with a touch of healing from the Son of Man. You see, in this moment, Jesus does not only heal the man of his physical afflictions. This story is not just about Jesus stepping into the mess of one man’s condition. This was Jesus making the choice to step into the mess of the unjust cultural practice of treating others as “untouchable” and addressing that mess through love, courage, and restoration.
The choice Jesus made to step into this mess – to heal this man – should cause us to pause. What messes are we avoiding? Messes in our individual lives, yes, but also messes that impact our communities, our churches, and our neighbors? What feels too overwhelming to tackle and instead we try to push it under the bed? I can think of a few and I am sure you can too. The big messes that we feel ill-equipped and too overwhelmed to address: Christian Nationalism, systemic racism, misogyny, patriarchy – the big ones. What do we do when we see these messes, but they feel too big for us to address?
Jesus provides us the answer and, if you identify as a Christ follower, He also provides us with the call. Jesus shows us how to step into the mess. Jesus shows us that when we see something overwhelming and too big to tackle there is only one choice that molds us into His disciples: we wade into the tension of the mess.
We build the spiritual discipline of stepping into the mess.
We do this with love. We do this with grace for ourselves and others. We do this with the knowledge and expectation that Jesus goes before us into the mess. We do this through the power of the Holy Spirit breaking down the strongholds that hold that mess together. But, we make the choice to step into the mess, to step into the tension. To take that one step to have the conversation with a friend, to educate ourselves about others’ lived experiences, to take that course on biblical justice, to talk to a woman about her experience trying to lead in a predominately male dominated space. We take the step into the mess. We do not avoid it. We do not wish it away. We do not shove it into a drawer. Because we know that Jesus calls us into the mess of believing and living that God is on the move – cleaning up the messes and restoring His kingdom – and He calls us to willingly move into the spaces that need His healing and reconciliation.
So, what step will you take to follow Jesus into the “mess”? Where will you wade into the tension? What is the choice before you now? Will you, like Jesus said to the man with leprosy, say “I do choose”? Where is God calling you forth? What has God placed before you? What has He placed in your hands? How has God shaped you to be uniquely created to step into the “mess” to believe that God is with you and before you? These are questions I ask myself on a regular basis. Am I avoiding the mess or am I wading into it? Am I wishing it away or am I, through God’s love and power, taking a step forward to address it.