"The Affirmessy Process – The postmodern thought that life is a journey, or process, that affirms the multiple realities of all people and allows for messy conversations, messy theology, messy questions, and messy understanding. The journey in the affirmessy process is not about having all the answers, but rather the answer is enjoying/allowing/affirming each other’s asking of the messy, unsolvable questions."
-Russell Clark, 2009-
Lately I have been encountering from different perspectives in my life that there is a certain amount of feeling the need to be clean before coming to God. Let me explain. How many times have you heard this:
"I can't pray to God and accept Jesus into my heart until I get my life fixed."
"I can't come to God like me!? Are you nuts?"
Well, maybe I am, but that's another discussion all together. 🙂 However, that thought that we have to be perfect to be "allowed" to talk to the Lord is….well, it seems to me to contradict who God is, what he represents, and who He has a passion for. It's very true in fact that God has given us a gift of his grace and love through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ and that is very difficult, sometimes it seems impossible, to accept. There is something that doesn't fit with "free gift" for us as human beings, but that's exactly what a gift is. It's free, you don't have to pay a down payment, or a monthly charge. It's free. We are ok with this idea when it comes to getting a gift from say your mom, dad, brother, sister, or even your best friend, but when it comes to God's free gift of grace and love?
We struggle with that. We can't wrap our mind around..that.
With presents from your mom, dad, etc. you can return the favor. With God we feel unworthy. There's a reason for that.
We are.
(Just a little side-note: What if it stopped there? Praise God that it doesn't)
But.
(That one word makes the sentence take a 180. We go from fallen to forgiven. Just one word.)
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8
I present to you Exhibit A. Jesus Christ was sent for the sole purpose of giving the world redemption through His blood. Period. God knows that your messy. You got junk. Baggage. Things have happened in our lives that have damaged us. hurt us to the core, and what is God's response?
He wants you and I to come to Him with ALL our junk, baggage, and everything that makes our lives messy. God says, "Bring it. I can take care of this. I got this."
"The Affirmessy Process – The postmodern thought that life is a journey, or process, that affirms the multiple realities of all people and allows for messy conversations, messy theology, messy questions, and messy understanding. The journey in the affirmessy process is not about having all the answers, but rather the answer is enjoying/allowing/affirming each other’s asking of the messy, unsolvable questions."
Point is this. We don't have all the answers, but we do have God and He tells us that we are loved and its ok to not know everything. He says its ok to not have it all "together," and its ok because of what He tells us through Paul in Philippians 1:6:
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
It's a journey, filled with mistakes and joys and tears and laughter and love. We will all understand fully when we see Jesus' face to face.