Messy Room

Do you have a messy /junk drawer?  I must confess that I don't have enough drawers, so I have a messy room.  It is the place where things go that I don't need right now.  They need to be put away, but I don't want to take the time to do that or I don't exactly know what to do with them, so they go into my messy room.

I am ashamed of this room.  If you came to visit - I would either hurriedly try to stuff everything into a closet or more likely, I would shut the door.  I don't want anyone to see how messy I am by seeing my messy room.  I feel guilty about the room and sometimes try to get it back under control, but it always seems to get messy again very quickly.

To be completely honest, my messy room spills out into other parts of my house.  Ask my closest friends and they will tell you I have piles of things in various places.  Since I live alone, it is easy for me to overlook them.  I usually know what is in them and when I need those things, I go to the correct pile.  Woe betide anyone who moves my pile or mixes them up!  No matter what I do, I can't seem to stop this habit of being messy and most of the time it doesn't really bother me because I just ignore it and don't think about it.

I also have a messy room in my life.  It isn't a physical place.  It is just part of me.  It is a place I don't want anyone to know about.  I'm ashamed of it.  I don't want anyone to see it and I feel guilty about it.  This room is hidden in the deepest most hidden part of me because I don't want it discovered.  I don't even want to know about it.  So, I ignore it and don't think about it.  It is still there though.  I think if we are honest, we all have this messy room in our lives.

We try to clean ourselves up and sweep away all the guilt, but it doesn't work.  It is still there full of the horrible, awful things we don't want anyone to know about.  Unlike my physical messy room in my house, I can't clean this room out.  It is full of my sin, my wrongs - those things that break relationship with other people, myself and with God.  I can try to remove one thing, but it keeps coming back.  I don't have the power to do it and I am too ashamed to ask anyone to help me.   Even if I did ask, they couldn't help me because they have their own messy rooms to worry about.

This day, though, celebrates something that is really good news for my messy room and for yours!  Today we remember the horrible death that Jesus died.  He died so that he could come into our messy rooms and clean them out for us.  We have no power to get rid of those wrongs, those sins.  He does.  He died so that those sins could be taken away - forever.  They will not be coming back!  We no longer have to be ashamed or carry our guilt around.  We just need to ask Jesus to forgive us and believe that he has the power to do it.  He does have that power!

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
   our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
   that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
   that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
   Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
   We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
   on him, on him.

¹⁰Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
   to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
   so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
   And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

 ^11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
   he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
   will make many "righteous ones,"
   as he himself carries the burden of their sins.

Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12

He took our mess.  He died for us.  He died for me.  His death speaks into the deepest part of me - the part I want to keep hidden.  He says, "I love you!  I love you so much that I have taken this mess from you and given you life and joy instead of shame, guilt and death."  That is really good news! 

Why did I write this?  Don't I already know it?  Yes, but.  But!  I need to hear it every day.  Every day I do something wrong and I need him to come and clean me up again.  You know what?  He loves me!  When I tell him in shame and sorrow what I have done, He forgives me.  He takes my mess and gives me his righteousness instead.  Every. Single. Day.

Thank you so much!  Jesus, you didn't have to die.  You were innocent.  You were righteous.  But.  But, you love me and everyone else in this world.  We all have messy rooms except you.  So, you died and took all our messy rooms on yourself so that we could have your righteousness.  Thank you, Jesus!  Thank you, Father for giving your one and only son!  Thank you Holy Spirit for speaking into my life and helping me to understand my mess and Jesus' gift - his death on the cross.  Thank you!