Holy Messes

Charisse Tierney accepts the daily messes she encounters as intentional nudges toward holiness. 

My life is a mess. Not in a big completely falling apart and shattering into the fragments of hopelessness and despair kind of way. More in the pile of snow gear in the doorway, sticky apple juice dripping off the counter, temper tantrum-throwing child, and endless to-do lists kind of way. 

Why are daily messes so hard to bear? 

My life has many blessings. A roof over our heads, a multitude of healthy children, and a devoted husband with whom I occasionally have a few moments of peace are just a few of the many things for which I am grateful. 

Which is why those incessant little messes of daily life sometimes feel so hard to bear. They cause an interior battle that rakes on the nerves and taunts the soul. They point out my earthly attachments with unmistakable clarity and remind me of my weaknesses. They provoke me, little by little, to overwhelming frustration and anxiety until those vices of hopelessness and despair loom like a great shadow over my sense of worthiness and purpose.  

And it is then that I find myself raising my voice at my child, losing my patience with my spouse, or descending into a quiet sulkiness, convinced that this life God created all around me is beyond my capabilities and not where I am supposed to be. 

I was chosen for these messes. 

But this life is exactly the one for which I was chosen. It was carefully tailored for me to lead me to God. He allows me to be consistently nudged out of my comfort zone and faced with my limitations. He gave me a life of abundance because He knew I would have to rely on Him to manage it all. He gives me messes as my training ground for holiness.

He gives me sticky messes, dirty messes and uncomfortable messes; but He also gives me beautiful messes like meaningful but unfinished projects, lists of amazing ideas for which I’ll never have the time, important events to attend that conflict with my schedule, and celebrations to plan that are suddenly upon me before I can execute them the way I would like. 

God loves a beautiful mess. 

He loves watching me working and persevering and ordering and thinking and praying. 

And when the messes don’t go away; when they just keep happening, one after the other; when the most beautiful of ideas just won’t come together … He loves watching me surrendering. 

As I pause to ask Jesus to help me patiently wipe up the juice, pick up the snow boots one more time, find the right words to write a story, and plan a birthday meal, peace begins to radiate out from me into my messy life. My earthly attachments are released, my weaknesses are made strong, and hopelessness and despair flee. 

God loves a beautiful mess because that is where He is sought and found. Which means a beautiful mess is exactly where I am supposed to be. 

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Copyright 2025 Charisse Tierney
Images: Canva