I have had this idea of the beauty of messiness rambling around in my thoughts lately.

I was intrigued by early America described in the book I talked about back HERE (The Prosperity Paradox), and then again the early America described in Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton (still going on that sucker, it is so dang long but SO interesting to me!). Early America was messy! I think often history talks of the founding forefathers with such glossy perfection (at least in my mind) when in actuality when you examine it all in a 35-hour-to-listen-to book (ha!), you get so much more of the nitty-grittiness of the “mess” it was, so many disagreements amongst those forefathers, all those duals (wow, I had no idea how common those were!), the scandals, the heartbreak. Apparently it is messy trying to start a new country!

As I was telling Dave my thoughts on all that messiness he told me he thinks our early church was much like that in many ways, which is true. Which led us to think about the messiness in families sometimes and the messiness in our personal lives…things we are slogging through, sometimes with no light at the end of the tunnel.

But the “mess” is what brings about the clarity. Most of the time things don’t just “happen.” There is so much work and so many failures and so much uncertainty in life.

My friend told me once that she thinks God lets the lows and the “mess” happen because He doesn’t want to lose us. Those are the times when we reach Up. That is when we are forced to our knees with broken hearts. And with His help we can rise and find beauty for ashes.

I am grateful that life is intermixed with both the beauty and the ashes that help us learn and grow. And that most of the time those “messes” bring about clarity in the end.

Below is my FAVORITE movie clip ever that expresses these thoughts so much better than my words can. Not the first part of it, but the little clip right at the end of this (skip to minute 4:10). I love it so much because it shows those “messes” intermixed with the clarity so beautifully.

That is the beauty of life. That even in our broken messiness, we have a Savior who helps it all make sense. And has “delivered” us from it all.

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One Comment

  1. Love that clip from the movie! Life in full color – the sadness, the elation… the awful, the beautiful – opposition in all things.

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