Read: Exodus 17:1-7; John 4:5-42
When I was a kid, every so often my parents would get tired of the mess in my room and instruct me to clean things up. I’d trudge up, muttering under my breath all the way, and proceed to “clean”. I say, “clean”, because I’d basically shove things into drawers and toss them in my closet. I’d wait long enough for it to seem I’d really done a good job and then have my Mom come up for inspection (praying she wouldn’t open the closet.) Usually, I’d pass. Occasionally she’d look in the closet!
During Lent, we are invited to enter more intentionally into times of prayer and self-examination that God might show us our messy, cluttered hearts that we would repent and experience his restoration and renewal. For many of us, it’s hard to admit our hearts are cluttered and messy. We’d rather toss it all in the proverbial closet so no one (especially God) would see it. And we hope and pray he won’t try to open the closet door.
I think that’s a bit like how the woman at the well felt. Here she was going out to get water at noon. It was the hottest time of the day and she was sure she wouldn’t have to interact with anyone. And yet, Jesus is waiting for her!
With each question he asks, she tries to divert his attention. It’s like she knows he wants to open the closet door, but maybe just maybe she can distract him…but no. He goes there and opens it.
And as all her junk – five husbands and not married to her current partner – come spilling out, she tries to divert Jesus one more time talking about the Messiah. 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” I can imagine the love and the compassion in Jesus’ eyes as he 26 said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
This woman, who society had written off as a sinner, as unworthy, as less than, Jesus sees her and loves her and offers to clean up her mess and give her a new heart and a new start. And, whether we like it or not, Jesus opens our closet door too. He loves us too much to let us sit in our mess. His invitation is not that we clean our own mess up, we can’t do it, he wants to clean it for us. He wants us to sit in our messy house and honestly admit that we are a hot mess.
This is the first step in repentance. It’s taking time for self-examination. It’s reviewing our lives in God’s presence, asking him to bring to our awareness the places we are not like Him, we are caught in sin, and we are holding on to the wrong things. It may start as a vague sense that something is out of whack. It could be more obvious like an anger that we can’t control or an addiction we can’t overcome. Whatever our mess is, we stop rationalizing and defending ourselves and see and listen and acknowledge what Jesus shows us.
This can be a painful process, but it is evidence of God’s love and grace. He’s freeing us from the sin that holds us in bondage. He’s leading us to the freedom that is ours in Christ. As it comes to the surface and we repent and ask forgiveness, we also ask Jesus to show us the deeper reason inside us that caused our bad behavior in the first place. We ask him to root it out at the source.
When our messy lives are cleaned up, it allows us to be more the people we were created to be. It allows us to reflect the person of Christ more in our thoughts, words, and actions. It puts us in a position to recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit’s still, small voice and tiniest nudges. It fills us with a peace that surpasses understanding and a joy that is our strength.
For reflection:
- Set aside time this week to review your life in God’s presence – family, work, church, friendships, and your personal relationship with him.
- Ask God to show you places where you the messes – where you fall short of Christlikeness and need him to clean things up and to transform you.
- As he cleans up the mess, ask his forgiveness, thank him you have it in Christ, and invite him to show you the root cause that led you to this place.
Read this week:
March 13: Genesis 24:1-27; 2 John 1:1-13
March 14: Genesis 29:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
March 15: Jeremiah 2:4-13; John 7:14-31; 37-39
March 16: 1 Samuel 15:10-21; Ephesians 4:25-32
March 17: 1 Samuel 15:22-31; Ephesians 5:1-9
March 18: 1 Samuel 15:32-34; John 1:1-9
March 19: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; John 9:1-41