the messy backlash

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. --from a speech given by Nelson Mandela (originally written by Marianne Williamson)

Nelson Mandela wasn't operating under any false pretenses when he chose to speak those words. The people he is talking about - you, me, everyone - are flawed and imperfect, yet still have something of worth to offer. Even though we are full of mistakes, regrets, bad decisions and struggles, the image of God is still inside of us, waiting to shine through. Through our mistakes. Through our bad decisions. Through our struggles. In the midst of all of it, not apart from it. Not after it. In it. We will never be perfect. We will never be the person the world thinks we should be. We already are exactly who God wants us to be.

I'm not saying that God doesn't want us to continually strive to be a better friend, a better spouse, a better whatever. Or to overcome addiction, or to repent for past wrongs. The point is that God sees in us RIGHT NOW, EXACTLY HOW WE ARE, exactly the person we are meant to be in order to experience and share God's love. God works in us right where we are, wherever we are.

I'm sensing a backlash from people who were raised in churches that demanded perfection, or else. So many people have massive guilt issues because they have lived and experienced life, but their experience of life (whether good or bad) doesn't jive with what their faith leaders have taught them life is supposed to be like. Because churches have screwed their people up so badly, their people are burdened with shame for things they shouldn't have to feel ashamed about. Or guilty about. Did Jesus not come to set them free? I don't think there were any conditions in that deal.

There has been an influx of books in the Christian market about what Mike Yaconelli called "messy" spirituality. It seems like every month there's a new book out there by someone who has realized that they are not okay . . . but that's okay! I hope more people come to realize this. No one is okay. That's okay. Shrinking back or denying the good that's in you will never help you feel the love of God, and more importantly it won't help you share it. Being unashamedly imperfect gives other people the courage and freedom to embrace their own messiness and begin experiencing a kind of love from God that they never have before.

Messy bits and all (because it's all messy), I am just the person God wants to use to bring light into the world. Sound full of myself? I'm not. I'm full of God. (Sound cheesy? Yeah . . . I'll admit to that.) I'm filled with the faith that God works miracles and shines light through even the most impossible of situations. I'm not perfect. I'm a mess. I can be selfish. I can be quick to judge. I can be a snob. I can be completely insensitive. But that's not all that I am, because I work every day to be the complete opposite of those things, and only manage to do so with God's help. That's the point, though. We're messy, but that how God likes us.

That's how God loves us.