This is a shout-out to all of you with messy lives out there.  Welcome to the club.

See...this cartoon from ASBOJesus got me thinking:

I resonate with this.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture on Facebook of a scene inside my house.   One person commented that my house was a mess.  And they are right. We have a cluttered house. We have a lot going on with people who aren't too keen on putting stuff away. When we have company coming over we clean like a tornado. But still, at the end of the day, we go to bed too tired to spend the extra half hour or fifteen minutes it would take to get everything in order.  I think it was cleaner before five kids.  Not sure I can remember back that far anymore.

But, there's a lot of love in this place.  You just may have to step over some books, toys, and school backpacks to get to it.

Well, the house isn't the only thing that's messy. My desk is as well and I should probably head on down to church today and get it cleaned off since we have our Superintendent is coming this weekend.  I swear it was clean at some point at the beginning of summer before we started moving items from church into it due to construction.  Now I just need to find new places for all the stuff that was brought into it.

My whole life is disorganized. Between Church and Lions Club and kids running this way and that way to this or that class or activity I often don't know which end is up. It can be overwhelming at times and it always seems like every task requires more of my time than I thought it was going to take. I try to put on a good show for others.  I've tried to "Get Things Done" and live by a planner and to-do lists to make some sense of it all. And I know that there are a whole lot of people out there who feel the same way.  But I keep chugging away.  My life is full.  It's still a good and wonderful and interesting life filled with good and wonderful and interesting people.

And, my Spirituality is messy as well. And I don't mean that I don't take enough time to pray (which I don't). I mean that, even though I grapple with some good, solid questions and try to live my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, it's like I'm still learning to walk, like a spiritual toddler. Some things make sense to me. Others I'm still exploring. Other aspects are tests of my faith.

But you know, it's my mess.

It's not perfect. It's real. And I'm not going to pretend that I have it all together.

And it's a mess I offer up to God to claim and redeem.

May God bless it.

Yes... "Bless this mess."

...

I should probably go clean.