Prayer Dealing with the Messiness of Life

Read II Corinthians 4
Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. ... ⁵ For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹ For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.
¹³ But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸ because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

                Lord, I am praying that between now and the end of the day I will manage to remember how frustrating and how foolish it is to keep finding fault with the nature of life, to keep rebelling against reality.

                What makes me think my world should be a world in which: 

¨   Relationships will always flow smoothly along, the people I live and work with will always be just what I want them to be, and I will always be just what they want me to be;

¨   Every problem will have a neat solution, with all the messiness cleaned up, all the loose ends tied up;

¨   Things fixed once will stay fixed, with no weeds growing if I walk away, no need to for even intermittent tending. 

When my thoughts are clear, I know it is out of my childishness, my sentimentality and my unfaithfulness that such expectations come.

When my thoughts are clear, I know how arrogant it is to balk at accepting my own limits, and to act as if I have been short-changed because earth is not heaven.

Into this very world, once upon a time, you sent Christ.  He accepted its untidiness, and lived as cleanly and beautifully as he could in the midst of it.

Perhaps you ask no more and no less of me.

Amen.