Life -- and faith -- are messy sometimes

Pop quiz: What do the following three pictures have in common?

Think you know? Give up?

All three represent places that were messy this morning and aren't this afternoon. After mowing the lawn and vacuuming the living room floor, both areas look a lot neater. Conner's bedroom floor was covered with clothes and blankets and other stuff earlier, but we worked together and cleaned it up. (Another "clean" image this third photo represents is the fact he got a haircut a week ago. I always think he looks a lot neater when he gets his hair cut short.)

Unfortunately, all of these areas didn't look as good when the day started. They were all a bit (or more than a bit) messy.

Just like life -- and our faith.

Author A.J. Gregory has even written a book about it called Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace. In the Amazon listing for the book, it says, "While most of us trudge toward the cross with the best intentions, at times our lives just don't pan out the way we've planned. Messy Faith addresses the muddled adventure that we call 'working out our salvation.' It is being sure and unsure, whole and broken, warring, losing, and winning. It is being right and being wrong and having no clue, but believing anyway. And it is trusting in God to perfect the final product of our flawed, human lives."

Sounds like a book I need to read, if only for the reminder that most, if not all, parts of our lives are messy. Yes, we need to clean up many of those messes. After all, if we don't clean up after ourselves, who will? Is it really fair to expect someone to come behind and clean up after us? (Plenty of people live this way, however. One of my pet peeves in life is cigarette butts thrown out of car windows. I want to find the people who do this and make them eat the butt they just threw out. OK, breathe, Brian ... breathe ... breathe ...)

But sometimes we just can't help but be "messy." The book's description continues: "We try to be perfect Christians. But we all make mistakes. Temptation. Doubt. Jealousy. Addictions. Unforgiveness. Where is God in all of this?"

As we head into Holy Week and experience again Peter's denial of Jesus during his trial, it's a good reminder that even though we all fall short of perfection and have "messy faith," God's grace is always there for us.

Have a great Palm Sunday tomorrow morning!