It’s ok to have brokenness, unfinishedness, and to be out of control. Messy floors, broken fences, unhung doors—not having the time, energy, money, or mental fortitude to fix every little thing. It’s ok.

Jesus was born into a mess because the gist of all of us is just that—mess. We ARE ALL A MESS. His presence in that mess was the greatest gift—the greatest joy. He walked right into complete disarray, stink, and brokenness and made it all new.

But the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people." —Luke 2:10

We don’t need to fix the mess, perfect the mess, or even hate the mess.
We simply need to invite Jesus INTO the mess—so that all of our messiness doesn’t matter anymore. Because He is the only mattering thing.

I wasn’t born to live perfectly, to keep it all together, or to control it all.
I was born to live broken, to BE a big, fat mess. Otherwise, how would we have eyes to see Jesus? How would our hearts know His sacrifice for us if we didn’t feel the weight of our own insufficiency?

So now, I get to shout in this big, broken, messed-up world that bringing my Jesus into any of it fixes it right up. It doesn’t necessarily mean the dishes wash themselves or the fences mend overnight, but it does mean that my heart changes. My eyes change. I see right past every messy bit and instead I simply see JOY.

Joy for messy babies and broken hearts.
Joy in insufficiency and every little failure.
Joy over dirty dishes and strewn floors and piles of toys because we are so deeply loved.
Joy over fear of the future because the past has been drenched in God’s faithfulness.
Joy over the endless cycle of ups and downs—because it’s only in the downs that we recognize and praise the ups.

Bringing Jesus into all of my messes brings JOY right back out of it. That’s the miracle. That’s the Gospel in real-time.

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