Mr Messy is a role model!

Do you have a favourite Mr Men or Little Miss book? One of my favourites is Mr Messy, what a truly unique and cheerful individual. But his life gets turned upside down by two guys, Mr Neat and Mr Tidy, who arrive uninvited and want to ‘fix’ his messiness.

I had a little wander through the Internet, looking around to see what people thought of the story of Mr Messy and it is so interesting to see how annoyed some people were regarding the treatment of Mr Messy. It was almost as if Mr Messy had a whole bunch of allies who thought he was actually fine being a little bit messy!

Do you know there are about 95 million photos and videos posted on Instagram every day, 95 million! I wonder how many of those photos or videos appeared online ‘unedited’? I’m guessing 75% of the photos or videos required 2, 3, 20, 50 takes to get just right? Maybe it’s even higher than 75% but that would be scary and insane wouldn’t it?

So why I am I talking about Mr Men and Instagram? Well, and I apologise now as I jump firmly and boldly onto my soapbox. In church and ministry we are obsessed with making everything look a little bit ‘Mr Neat and Mr Tidy’! Nowhere in God’s word do I read or see us being called to present a ‘Instagram-perfect’ life, and definitely not a perfect church gathering or youth group. Throughout the gospels Jesus spends most of his time reaching out the the ‘Mr Messy’ people, the doctor has come to treat the sick not the healthy. Even in the Old Testament God is pouring His promises into a whole range of broken, flawed people. God is working and moving within these broken people, He isn’t waiting for them to ‘get sorted’ first before He comes close and calls them to be part of His great story.

Last month I had the joy of helping lead an ‘all-age’ service, now I know that is a painful and tainted phrase for many people. But I think we actually did ok but the most encouragement I took from it was because of a young lad who came up and “interrupted” the talk. If I’m honest he didn’t interrupt, he simply had a ‘show and tell’ moment and wanted to share. It would have been so easy to have dismissed him and carried on talking. But looking up and seeing the panicked look on his mums face I knew this was a teaching moment for me. Kneeling down I took the paper aeroplane he had made and decorated, we had a brief chat, I thanked him and then watched him wander happily back to his seat.

These moments of ‘mess’ need to be embraced and welcomed because they remind us that our gatherings are about people, and all of us are a little messy at times (maybe more often than we’d like to admit). Rather than working hard to create an strict ‘order of service’ that you think people need, allow for spaces of genuine warmth and familiarity where God can freely move. Allow the wrinkles and blemishes and interruptions of each gathering to reflect the honesty and openness of your community.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”

Hebrews 12:1

I wonder whether we are ‘entangled’ with the need to be and look perfect. What would it look like to ‘throw off everything that hinders’? I would say that trying to present a perfect Christian life, or a perfect Instagram-worthy gathering, is hindering us. Not only is it hindering us, it is another reason people might look inside our churches and think they do not fit in because they don’t look like us, they are all a bit too messy to join our gathering. But it is here we all need to be honest; we are ALL messy. We know God works in the mess, with the mess, so we need to allow our gatherings to reflect the simply truth that our real selves are the greatest witness to God’s miraculous, life-changing grace.

Our time together needs to be unedited, as we spend time being imperfectly real together we are giving God permission to move and welcome and heal.

“Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. ”

― Michael Yaconelli

Let us strive to be real; not perfect, not neat, not tidy, not edited, but honest, open and real!

I believe in this ‘realness’ we will not only feel closer to God ourselves but we will be laying a bold red carpet and a wide open door to all those we long to welcome in.