When You're in the Messy Middle...

Tuesday nights used to be the night the kiddos and I gathered around the TV to watch the latest episode of Fixer Upper. Our family loves Chip and Joanna Gaines! Their playful banter coupled with the incredible transformations of some of the ugliest, most dilapidated homes in Waco kept us tuning in week after week.

Digging deeper, I discovered my love for their show stemmed from something far greater than fresh paint and beautiful landscaping. In a word, it was about restoration. Something within me came to life as I watched them transform a home that was once shabby—and in some cases seemingly beyond redemption—into something vibrant and useful, and lovely to boot.

Really, the underlying message of the show echoes the hope I have in my own life and faith journey for the not-so-pretty places that still need a lot of work. It gives me hope that God is taking those crumbling, worn-out places in my soul and giving them new life. Restored, better than before.

However, round about the middle of every episode when they would inevitably hit a snag in the demolition and had to call the homeowners with some unexpected surprise/expense I usually just wanted to skip ahead to the end. The messy middle with its piles of rubble and potential project derailers gave me anxiety (sorry Chip!). But I always hung on to the end, because I knew the final result would be a thing of beauty to behold.

Sometimes when that messy middle is my life, and all I can see is the debris and dirt, I can’t envision the beauty that will come from it. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you’re in the messy middle right now and all you can see is what’s right in front of you—pain, heartache, disappointment. And you don’t even have the heart to imagine what could be.

I read something today that might help…

In no small coincidence, as I was mulling over this blog post and I sat down to read my Bible I came across this verse in Mark 8:33. Jesus is speaking to Peter and he says:

“You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (NLT)

Those words lodged in my heart and reminded me that there is another perspective to any challenge I’m facing--God’s. And unlike me, he doesn’t just see what I see, he sees everything, including the end. And just like Joanna Gaines often looks at a mess of chaos and neglect and coaxes out beauty and order, so does God.

So if you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a mess, seemingly stuck in an endless cycle of pain and hopelessness, place your circumstances in the hands of the ultimate restorer and know that he is at work creating beauty from your chaos. Hold on and don't abandon hope! Even if all seems hopeless right now in the messy middle, you can trust that God is at work in the unseen places of your soul and your circumstances.

P.S. John Lennon once said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about that statement--or anything else for that matter. I'd love to hear from you!