My daughter, Joelle, has been the apple of my eye since the day she was born. I’ve been wrapped around her finger for over fifteen years now, absolutely smitten. There was a stretch of about six weeks, however, when Joelle was not even a year old, during which that little girl stretched her parents’ patience to the limit.
I know she looks cute, but believe me when I tell you she was a hot mess! I remember one morning when Geo and I heard Joelle whimpering in her crib, so I shot up out of bed and bolted to her room. The moment that I saw her, I could see that something was very wrong. Both her eyes were swollen and glued shut by a line of crispy, yellowish mucus. It was conjunctivitis. Also known as Pink Eye. And it was gross.
As disgusted as I felt, I couldn’t just walk away. I love her, and she was helpless. She had no idea what was going on. Can you imagine what it’s like to be a year old and, for the first time in your life, your eyes won’t open? She must have been terrified. So I put on a brave face, stepped toward her and said, “What happened, baby?”
And then, my firstborn daughter lifted her face in my direction with both eyes glued shut and said her very first word:
“Uh-oh!”
I was so proud (and yes, a little grossed out)!
A few weeks later, she said her first complete sentence, and once again, it happened at the crack of dawn. This time, her crib looked like a crime scene. She had a nosebleed. I don’t know how long her nose had been bleeding, but judging by the sheets, the walls, and her face and hair, I’d guess it was somewhere around two weeks’ worth of blood. It was everywhere. And then she looked up at me, covered in blood like the cursed child in every horror movie, and she said the first complete sentence of her life:
“Dada, I’m a mess.”
Just like Joelle’s speaking life began by acknowledging the problem (Uh-oh!) and confessing her complicity (I’m a mess!), our life in Christ often begins when we acknowledge that something’s not right, and confess we’re part of the problem.
A cute little kid’s mess is one thing, but what about the fully-grown, adult-sized messes we get ourselves into? Not just an “Oops I forgot-to-pay-that-bill” kind of mess. I mean those “My-friends-and-family-don’t-even-know-who-I-am-anymore” types of messes.
What can Jesus do to get you out of the mess you’re in?
Just the other day a friend was telling me about how he came home to find his 90-pound black lab, Darnell, with underwear around his head and mysterious, dark-blue goo covering his face. Darnell’s eyes were bloodshot, and his front paws were oily, making it impossible for him to stand up without slipping. To make matters worse, my friend said there was an awful smell throughout the house, like something was burning.
“What did you do, Darnell?” my friend asked. Strangely enough, Darnell didn’t answer, so it remained a mystery.
After reviewing his nanny-cam footage, my friend cracked the case. Some time around 9:00 in the morning, Darnell followed his nose to the laundry room, where he found three mini-Almond Joy bars in my friend’s pants pocket and devoured them. Darnell then dove, nose-first, into the laundry basket looking for more, and he wound up sticking his head through a leg-hole in my friend’s boxer-briefs, which covered his eyes. Shocked by his sudden blindness, Darnell violently shook his head side to side, hitting the table next to the washing machine, causing a container of liquid detergent to tip onto its side. Darnell was standing directly under the flow of soap as it escaped the container and drenched the dog and the floor beneath him, which explained the dark-blue goo and Darnell’s slippery front paws. My friend figures Darnell’s blood-shot eyes were due to an allergic reaction – either to the chocolate, the almonds, or the detergent.
But what about the burning smell? On his way out of the laundry room, Darnell slipped and fell into the ironing board, knocking the iron to the floor. The iron clicked on and tanned the hardwood floors before – thankfully – it clicked off again three minutes later.
Maybe you haven’t eaten chocolate with some guy’s underwear around your head while bathing in detergent and falling on your face, but we all know what it’s like to be Darnell. It seems like every other week I talk to someone who reminds me of Darnell. They’re perfectly nice people who made one seemingly innocent mistake that led to another, and another, and another, and now their eyes are bloodshot and their life is basically going up in flames.
It probably wasn’t Darnell’s first time chasing after chocolate that wasn’t his, you know? That’s usually how these things start – by impulsively going after something that you know is bad for you…again. It’s insanely frustrating to keep making the same mistakes and winding up in the same kind of messes.
How can Jesus save us from the mess we’re in?
I believe that one reason Jesus came to the earth was to help us break the cycle of mistakes we keep making. Usually when I tell someone who’s really in a mess that they need Jesus, they think I mean religion: go to church more, tithe more, curse less, etc. But to understand the uniqueness of Jesus’ way, you need to know one thing:
Jesus couldn’t care less about your religious identity.
The way of Jesus is the GOSPEL, not merely religion. What’s the difference?
Religion says, “I’ve gotta get my act together so God won’t be mad at me anymore.” But the Gospel says, “Jesus loves me so much that He became a person who died for me. That really inspires me to get my act together!”
Religion says, “Once you change, you might be accepted.”
The Gospel says, “You’re already accepted, and now you’re free to change.”
Religion begins with you choosing to get right with God.
The Gospel began with God choosing to get right with the world.
“For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16)
When you believe and profess that Jesus is who he said he was – not just another great religious teacher, but actually God in the flesh – then everything in your life will start to change.
How? While religion may lead to some temporary behavior modification, the Gospel inspires total, inside-out, lasting transformation. When you begin with the unstoppable, unconditional love of God (instead of shame-centered behavior modification), you are free to embrace change – instead of merely being guilted into it.
Through Jesus, the one true God said to us all, “I love you no matter what, and you’re free to love me back,” and it’s freedom that makes all the difference. Choosing to trust Jesus and make him the center of your life is the first step toward real transformation.
It’s as simple as saying this: Uh-oh Jesus, I’m a mess! You know every mistake I’ve ever made, and still, you died for me. Thank you for accepting me and loving me. Even though I’m still a mess sometimes, you’ve helped me to see that I’m not *just* a mess. I’m loved. I’m alive. And most importantly, I’m yours. I love you more than anything. Amen.
