The Messes We Make

A couple weeks ago I helped my foxhole friend clean his garage before his wife's family invaded their house for the holidays. It was his attempt to create a more organized space for his own family and to appease his in-laws who have always seen his garage as a "death-trap." He had to take responsibility for the mess, he owns the house and the space and he is ultimately responsibile for how his family does or does not take care of that space. His kids are pretty young and so perhaps they are just not responsibile enough to do their share. Their lives are busy and maybe it's just not a huge priority.... until family come! Sometimes outside stimuli, a need for a fresh start, getting ticked off enough to act, or the fear of being exposed can incite action!

Proverbs 26:11 "As a dog returns to it's vomit, so a fool who repeats his folly."

We all have habits that are either healthy or un-healthy. Yesterday in an attempt to help someone out, due to some really bad decisions/in-decisions he is responsible for, we ended up in an even greater mess. I heard myself during the 4 hour discussion repeat nearly everything I have before to him and he just sat there seemingly un-able to connect the dots on how he gets there. I couldn't get him to understand but his mess was also effecting my life and those I love - big time!
As long as we are all in process we all have messes! Seen and un-seen, and there may be many legitmate reasons for how they got there, but in the end we are responsible for most of them. When it comes to cleaning up messes I admit I love both the process and creating systems so it can stay cleaned up, and of course I love the results! I love it! But what I don't love is not doing things differently enough so the messes keep happening....Have you been there?

"Insanity is doing the same things, the same way and expecting different results."

I believe that due to agreements we make about our lives, agreeing with other people's opinions of us, things that happen or don't happen to us, failures, in-decisions, wrong decisions, poor models, generational sins, the enemies who rage war against us (all of the above) we live in messes. Repeated messes! Many messes if not most of them we cannot clean up ourselves, especially when they involve/effect others. Out of fear we either do one of the following; we jump in and take control, hope others will jump in and rescue, or we do nothing. As I mentioned in my previous post on gravity, it takes God's strength to help us pull away! I will be taking some action, but first I am taking time to ask God to help me understand how the mess happened in the first place, what my role was, and ask for His help, His wisdom and then the faith and partnership to get it cleaned up the best it can be!

Thank God He is cleaning up my messes as I surrender my responsibility, my control and the blame I have placed on others/things! Thank God I have His word, The Spirit, other people who love me and can speak the truth into my life! Thank God - He makes all things new through His presence and power, His grace and love!