life is a lovely mess
We all try to live the life we love, generally only to find that love is messy. And messy is hard to love.
I’m just finishing this book:
It’s fascinating but also a little scary because as it turns out I have a lot of stuff.
In the retrospection that comes free with every Minnesota winter I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to declutter. How to get rid of physical and emotional stuff. It’s messy.
Last week I met with a group from church and we talked about Mark 5:1-20 which falls neatly in the category of ‘odd stories in the Bible that don’t make a lot of sense.’ (To be fair, it’s a very long list.) In this story Jesus casts demons out of a man into a herd of pigs that then jump into the sea only to find that they are incapable of swimming so they drown. Meanwhile, back on land, the townsman formerly known as The Demoniac begs to follow Jesus rather than stay back in his hometown. But Jesus says no, you can’t come with me. Stay home. This is where I want you to tell the story of what has happened.
Jesus wasn’t offering an escape plan. Quite the opposite. That poor dude was stuck in the thick of things. My friend John summed it up as Jesus saying, “Here’s your life, now live it.” Jesus set him totally free to live a demon free life. He gets to live the life he loves only to realize that it’s going to get really messy really fast. But he does it. I’m guessing if the Newer Testament ever comes out we’ll find out he ends up loving that messy life of his.
One of the observations in the book “Stuff” is that ‘Objects carry the burden of responsibilities that include acquisition, use, care, storage, and disposal.’ (pg. 262) I look around my house and garage and I see all kinds of these things that carry that weight. I look inside me and I see it too. It’s not clear to me always which objects I want, which ones I need, which ones I can get rid of and which ones I’m afraid to touch.
We’ve all got junk to get rid of. And treasures too. What’s what is not always clear. But we feel the responsibilities of love and life and mess. And we live them. And in so doing learn to love messy as best we can.