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Living in the mess
Monday, Week 5 |
Reading
Psalm 107
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress;
he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
For he satisfies the thirsty,
and the hungry he fills with good things.
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Reflection
When I procrastinate, I tidy. I organise each room, I fold the sheets, I tidy the drawers and get the laundry in order. It’s so beautiful. The trouble is that I tend to try to do with life what I have just done with my house – that is, get it all tidy and in order. And that’s not possible. We do what we can to make things better, but it’s equally important to learn to live in the mess that’s an inevitable consequence of living.
So what can we learn about ourselves through living in the mess? One of the things we note is that God is closer to the mess than we might imagine, and our messy lives and world are never out of the scope of God’s love and redemption. Indeed “mess” might even be part of God’s plan. He is always present with us in it.
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Challenge
Whether we’re facing physical mess, emotional mess, financial mess or any other kind – do we shut God out of it, or do we “cry out to the Lord in our trouble” to step into the confusion of our lives?
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Today's family challenge
Clear up a drawer or cupboard that’s got into a mess
Tidying our belongings is not too hard (once we get started) - but unless we make a habit of doing so regularly, the mess soon builds up again. |
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Download our Lent app
The app is available to download from the Apple store and Google Play store
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Explore our family activities calendar
Every day of Lent we have an activity for children and families in our app. |
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The reflections are taken from the booklet Dust and Glory: A Lent journey of faith, failure and forgiveness <link to follow>, which is published by Church House Publishing and copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2023 and used here with permission. They are based on Failure: What Jesus said about sin, mistakes and messing stuff up, The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2023, written by Bishop Emma Ineson and published by SPCK, which is copyright © 2022 Emma Ineson and used here with permission.
Except where otherwise specified, Bible readings are taken from The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. |
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