into the mess

Before I began blogging, I was clueless as to how many blogs were actually written by young adults. There is inspiration to be found in many of them, especially when you find other bloggers that have the same perspectives and beliefs as you.

But, while it may be encouraging and even inspiring to read their stories, sometimes I walk away feeling like there is an expectation to meet. After seeing what seems like, consistently splendid daily lives, it can feel like I too must meet this expectation for my own blog; or more prevailing . . . I then feel like I must meet this expectation in my own life.

And I choke, because my every day life begins to feel too small compared to the expectation.

Recently I read a blog post from a friend, and she include a quote from another blogger that said,

This has been on my mind lately. In the blogging world, we all have a tendency to make life look glamorous and easy and beautiful. And, at times, it is. But, at other times, life is not. Life, quite a lot of the time, is embarrassing, awkward, hard and just...well, not pretty.

Life, quite a lot of the time is not a reel of splendid scenes. Its hard and challenging, its raw emotion and its troublesome at times, it gets confusing and awkward, it can be embarrassing and uncomfortable, but its real, and its okay.

The expectation that life has to be prefect is far from reality. Life is a beautiful mess and we are learning through it all. God knows that we aren’t perfect. . . He doesn’t expect us to be. He does, however, expect us to strive to be more like Him and to be transformed into His likeness. He knows that things can get messy and  He loves us so much that he enters right into the mess with us. He doesn’t wait until things are tidy and perfect, because He knows that we are human, and perfection is simply unattainable.

The call to Christianity is not the call to be perfect. It’s a call to follow the One who is perfect and aim to be more like Him each and every day.

Life is not always picture perfect or ideal, and hardly do we live at a place of constant, blissful contentment. Life is often mundane and routine. Some days are just plain boring and others can be so tiresome. Yet the miracle of it all, is that our God remains the same. He is in the midst of the wearisome and ordinary. He is constant.

In an attempt to end all of these thoughts, I remember a post that another blogger shared. This part of the post seems to sum up my rambling thoughts: 

To adore the one who created the Heavens and the Earth, to give thanks for who He is and all He has given, to worship and commune with Holy God, whispering in the quite, clinging to the noise, believing in all circumstances – this is what makes a life large.  

Finding joy in Him, in a day that goes all wrong, this is the miracle.