Beloved Mess

Have you ever noticed how auto-correct can sometimes feel prophetic? Often auto-correct suggestions are humorous, like the suggestion that you pick up some bears (rather than bread!) for dinner on the way home! However, sometimes auto-correct opens my eyes to a much needed moment of sacred clarity.

Last week, I was trying to send a text of encouragement to a friend reminding her of her belovedness as a child of God. Thanks to auto-correct, however, I sent her an encouraging text reminding her of her beloved mess as a child of God.

At first I laughed out loud and immediately sent a correction! Yet, the more I think of it, the more I realize that there is tremendous truth in the autocorrect version. We are indeed beloved by God right in the midst of the messiness of our lives - all of the frustrations, exhaustion, misunderstandings and uncertainties we face every day.

In fact, it seems as though the world is full of an agonizingly high level of mess at the moment; lingering pandemic, brutal war in Ukraine, stomach-churning levels of gun violence, political polarization, deeply-entrenched racism, fracturing faith communities, and a heartbreaking aversion to relating to one another as fellow children of God.

We are all in this beloved mess of a world together. I don't pretend to presume that there are easy ways out of any of these messes. But shouldn't the first step be at least a willingness to acknowledge our mutual belovedness as children of God?

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 John 4:11

My deepest prayer amidst this heartachingly messy world in which we live is that we stretch ourselves beyond our rigid assumptions and opinions and dare to begin a compassionate conversation with someone we perceive to be "different" than ourself. What a difference it would make if our conversations included heart-softening words such as...

I love you. I am sorry.

I may be wrong.

I am listening.

From a place of softened hearts and humble words, amidst the beloved mess of God's beloved community, may we feel the assurance of our belovedness amidst it all.