I found HOPE in the Messy Middle

I love the lyrics in the song above. My favorite line is "I'm sorry for running in circles, for placing my focus on the waves and not Your face."

I can so identify! Many times I have found myself exhausted from running in circles because my  focus was on the waves and not on Jesus' face. In the midst of messy circumstances we tend to want to focus on the circumstance and fix it ourselves. But, Jesus said turn and fix your eyes on me in the middle of you messy circumstance. His promise is to guide us through it and reward us with a new inner strength we didn't have before.

The messy middle.. it's where we all get tripped up.  Sometimes we just don't know what to do. It just feels awkward to turn to Jesus first, especially in the beginning of our journey. We are taught to be independent and self reliant, the "we can do it" kind of girls!





But the bible tells us something totally different.

I have been working on a speaking project with two of my good friends, Barb Cash and Lisa Dittman. Our topic is how to get through the "Messy Middle" of life's struggles. We have all had our fair share of them. The details of the struggles are all different but they all have two things in common. The temptation to focus on the circumstance and fix or trusting and turning it over to Jesus.

 This theme also seems to be through out the bible.

 I awoke this morning and heard a small whisper that said, "God had a messy middle". As I began to research this thought I found that indeed it was true.

God had to sacrifice His own Son for our sins. Jesus had to die on a cross, while His Father watched. This was the only way to rescue His people from the oppression of hell. That's a pretty messy middle! 

I think it is amazing that the Jesus never asks us to do what He was not willing to do Himself. As I read the story, I noticed that when the Messy Middle was approaching Jesus went to pray. He turned His focus to His Father. The disciple's turned their focus to the circumstances.
Jesus wept, and accepted that the cup was not going to be taken away. He was filled with a strength to get up and accept His Fathers Will. He bared the cross and carried it with the help of a friend. His cross was place inbetween two crimals .. one who focused on circumstances and died and one who focused on Jesus and went to paradise. Jesus  struggled during the sacrifice and cried out, "Father, why have You forsaken me?" Then He trusted and turned and gave us all the gift of grace we could never earn.

The results were much different for the ones who focused on their circumstances. The disciples grew weary and slept, they rebuked and argued, cut off ears and denied that they ever knew Him. One even took his own life.  Their focus on their  circumstances caused them to loose heart, belief and faith.. it caused them to sin.. make mistakes.

This is why Jesus wants us to focus on Him and not our circumstances. When we focus on our circumstance's we can make the Messy Middle even messier.

If you think about it the bible is full of Messy Middle's. Here's just a few examples of people who made the middle messier.

Abraham and Sarah- Promised to be parents of many nations and during the Messy Middle Shara tried to fix it and it created a big mess. Yet, the Lord still followed through on His promise. Sarah messed up and was still chosen to be the Mother many nations.

Joseph and his brothers- Joseph shared a dream that made his brothers jealous. Instead of focusing on God to get their own dreams the brothers focused on their circumstances and sinned.. sold their brother to slavery. Joseph kept his focus on God for 13 years while enslaved and in prison. God kept His promise to Joseph while he struggled and delivered him to save many people.. even his brothers who tried to kill him.

Job- kept his focus on God while he endured many heartbreaking circumstances. He lost everything and did nothing to deserve it. He was tempted by his friends to blame himself and fix it. He trusted and turned and God explained and gave back twice as much as he lost.

I could go on.. what I want to point out is HOPE.. there's always hope in the Messy Middle. They struggled through the messy middles and still were called Hero's of faith! That is hope we can all hold on to. We need to understand, we all get lost in the Messy Middle. We also need to learn to turn to Jesus, the One who never get lost in the Messy Middle:)