Still Messy

I can't sleep tonight, and so blog, I must. I'm re-reading Michael Yaconelli's book Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People this week for the first time in probably 4 years, and I'm struck anew with the fresh perspective in this inspiring little volume.

We talk our way out of the spiritual life by refusing to come to God as we are. Instead, we decide to wait until we are ready to come to God as we aren't. We decide that the way we lived yesterday, last week or last year makes us “damaged goods” and that until we start living “right,” we're not “God material.” Some of us actually believe that until we choose the correct way to live, we aren't chooseable, that until we clean up the mess, Jesus won't have anything to do with us. The opposite is true. Until we admit we are a mess, Jesus won't have anything to do with us. [Michael Yaconelli]

I confess that this completely flies in the face of what I grew up with. But as I read the Scriptures, I see more signs of what Yaconelli was talking about.

Luke 5:31-32 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

I'm to come as I am to CHRIST. HE meets me where I am now. HE doesn't tell me to come back later when I've got everything together. HE just says come. I am to confess my sins and accept the free gift that HIS SON offers me, the gift of HIMSELF and HIS atoning work on the cross. And after taking that initiating step, I enter into that incredible, miraculous relationship with my CREATOR.

And I believe it's that relationship that brings about the real changes in my life. The relationship that guides and directs me. As it deepens, I become more in tune with what HE wants of me. I can hear HIM, and I start to see things in a whole new light, as well. Suddenly I see sin in my life that I didn't even know was there before. The HOLY SPIRIT convicts me of these hidden sins, and I start to see just how broken, how messed up my life really is. And it is there in my sinful condition, in my devastating brokenness, that my SAVIOR meets me and continues that wondrous work of transformation that HE began more than 20 years ago, and that only HE can finish.

Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter [or finisher] of our faith..."

Spiritual people also admit their unfinishedness. Unfinished means incomplete, imperfect, in process, in progress, under construction... The construction site of our souls exposes our flaws, the rough-hewn, not-finished faith clearly visible in our hearts. When we seek God, Jesus begins to take shape in our lives. He begins a good work in us, he starts changing us, but the finishing process is a more-than-lifetime process. The work of God in our lives will never be finished until we meet Jesus face to face.[Michael Yaconelli]

Philippians 1:6 “...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”