Summary

The article posits that the challenges and imperfections one faces, metaphorically referred to as 'messes,' are integral to personal growth and life purpose.

Abstract

The essay explores the concept that life's messes, from personal struggles to global issues, are not merely obstacles but essential components of one's journey and purpose. It draws on biblical references and personal anecdotes to illustrate how facing and overcoming these messes can lead to profound transformation and the ability to help others. The author suggests that the process of enduring and learning from these challenges refines one's character, much like gold is purified through fire. The article encourages embracing life's messes as part of one's gift to the world, emphasizing that even pain and adversity contribute to the tapestry of a meaningful existence.

Opinions

The author believes that every aspect of life, including its messiest parts, holds value and contributes to one's ultimate purpose.
The article suggests that personal trials, such as those faced by biblical figures, are akin to a crucible that refines one's character.
It is implied that the struggles one endures can become tools for helping others, turning personal weaknesses into strengths.
The piece conveys the idea that the process of dealing with life's messes, rather than avoiding them, is crucial for personal development and spiritual growth.
The author emphasizes that the journey through adversity, including physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges, is a shared human experience that should not be ignored or dismissed.
The article encourages a perspective shift, viewing life's difficulties as opportunities for growth rather than as insurmountable problems.
It is proposed that even the most successful individuals, like Jesus and His apostles, faced messy and tragic ends, which ultimately contributed to their legacies.
The author reflects on the idea that the 'mess' of life is analogous to the wrapping paper of a gift, enhancing the anticipation and joy of the revelation to come.

Always Messed Up? The Mess Is Part of Your Gift

The trouble with you? You’re a mess — it turns out that’s a key part of your life purpose

The mess is part of your gift? Life hands you your worst nightmare; you somehow face it, helping others and yourself in the process.

We all face messes — but everything in life is also a gift, including those messes we avoid, clean, endure, escape, or overcome.

“‘We’re all guilty because of what we did to our brother!’ they told each other. ‘We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We’re in this mess because we wouldn’t listen!’” (Genesis 42:21, ISV).

Life begins — and ends — with perfection and massive messes co-existing side-by-side. Every day in between birth and death includes messed up moments as well as moments of perfection:

The perfectly formed infant and a messy afterbirth come into the world together along with a life of agony and ecstasy.
The ugly messes we endure as our bodies fall apart come as prodigal loved ones return for end-of-life miracle reconciliations.
Life keeps handing us messes. Do we clean them up? Run from them? Or wallow in them?

“And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.” (Genesis 43:34, ASV).

What would Christianity be like if Jesus and His apostles had died of old age? Instead, Jesus and nearly all of his apostles were martyred or died in tragic ways. Only John lived to old age. Our Lord, the spotless victim, was humiliated and tortured in a public crucifixion.

We all face some form of messy, painful situations. Mary, free of sin, gave birth to the perfect Son but had to do so in the dirt of a manger built for animals. Soon after, the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt as King Herod ordered the massacre of innocents. She had to watch her only son die.

“My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of adversity. Cling to him, do not leave him, that you may prosper in your last days.

Accept whatever happens to you; in periods of humiliation be patient. For in fire gold is tested, and the chosen, in the crucible of humiliation. Trust in God, and he will help you; make your ways straight and hope in him.” (Sirach, 2:1–6, NABRE).

What does the Bible mean by “in fire gold is tested?’’ The more you heat gold, the purer and more refined it becomes — and when gold is melted, goldsmiths can see their own reflection in the molten liquid gold.

Similarly, when we are “under fire,’’ our own strength is tested, allowing our Father, the great artist, and goldsmith, to see His own reflection within us, the children of God. When we fall in love, we say our hearts melt.

And “the chosen in the crucible of humiliation?’’ A crucible is a container where metals are melted, so the crucible of humiliation would be having our ego and pride melted away in horrible embarrassment—what a mess?

You may be the biggest neat nut in the world, but somewhere you have a junk drawer or pile of stuff you don’t know how to handle, your mess. We all have physical, emotional, and even spiritual messes we can't quite handle. So we look away and let those messes sit there piling up.

Until someone or something forces us to deal with our messes.

“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.’’ (Romans 14:14 ESV).

Everyone is dying, one day closer to death than they were the day before. But in the meantime, we have these messes to deal with, our own crosses to bear.

When I was a boy, we frequently saw TV ads about starving children in other nations. Americans have the opposite problem: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 72 percent of American adults are overweight or obese.

What a mess: especially when our aging, overweight bodies start to fall apart, riddled with diseases, organ malfunctions, scars, cancer, and pain. So many people I know are dealing with messes, so I bowed down and prayed.

I prayed and heard an answer that came back to me while walking through the quiet woods the next day. The Voice whispered: “The mess is part of your gift.’’

As a young journalism student, I asked John DiBiaggio, the late great president of three universities, his greatest strength, and weakness. He blew away my 20-year-old mind by saying your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness when taken too far.

I just finished writing a book about an alcoholic priest: His alcoholism and the abuse he suffered nearly killed him, but when he overcame both, his “mess’’ became his gift, the story, and experience he used to help heal and save countless others.

The mess, the weakness or handicap, is actually part of your gift?

In “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,’’ the Enterprise crew encounters a Vulcan offering to take away their pain, and Captain James Kirk fights back, saying his pain is part of who he is, saying he needs his pain.

Everything we get in life is a gift from God — except our own sin.

But we also get gifts wrapped in gift paper, bows, and string. Unwrapping the gift (rather than simply receiving an unwrapped gift) adds to the excitement, the fun, the joy of receiving the gift. And after ripping that wrapping paper away, the paper and boxes are part of the mess piled on the floor.

The mess is part of the gift. Part of the test and challenge we call life.

“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,’’ (1 Peter 3:21, ESV).

Encouraging, empowering, and entertaining. In Christ.