What A Mess!

I am the first to admit that I love organization. Seeing things tidy & in their proper place makes me a happy woman. My bent is so much this way that I can get a bit out of sorts when others don't have the same inclination that I do. I was moaning to my friend, Patty, the other day that I wished sometimes that I didn't see the "out of place" things. I always feel compelled to either "tidy it up" myself or to point out to someone else what they should do about it. Neither inclination is always the right thing to do. Sometimes I'm just being a "Martha" instead of a "Mary".

Later on in the week, as I pondered, well, really stewed about, the state of certain things, I realized something: life is messy. Think about it for a moment. How we are born is messy as any mother can tell you. Our babies come out of us all goopy & wet & not looking at all like the pretty newborns on TV. Death can be even messier than birth. Not to be too graphic, but at the moment of death our muscles relax and release, um, certain things from our bodies. Everything in between those events rarely occurs in a tidy, neat way. Born messy, live messy, die messy seems to be the way of things.

I know, God is a god of order. We, however, have been born into a world tainted by sin that is no longer the perfect creation it started out as. Man is not the perfect being God created him to be in the beginning. I think sometimes when I feel the overwhelming longing for order the most is when I am probably the least focused on God. With all my energy going into trying to fix, straighten out, or problem solve, I often fail to stop to see what the Lord wants done with the situation. Sometimes He just wants the mess left alone. Other times it's not mine to do something about.

The past few days I have been trying to slow down and ask the Father what, if anything, He wants done. Focusing more on Him and less on "the mess" helps me be more at peace. (Everyone repeat after me: "Duh!!") I am also continuing on my life-time lesson of realizing that things won't be perfect this side of Heaven and I am no less valuable a person for not trying to make everything so.

I leave you with this thought from Thomas Merton:

"Each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom. Each one of us is called to a special place in the Kingdom. If we find that place we will be happy. If we do not find it, we can never be completely happy. For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be."

Comments

[Shannon **Gabi's Mom**]

Wonderful insight!