Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Lenten Mind of Christ | God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality

 

God Goes Before Me by House on Rocks

The prodigality of God's love
scandalizes the hell out of us.
And thank God it does.
We can breathe deep and
consent to God's presence
with us here and now.

+ Having the Mind of Christ 


The person with the Spirit 
makes judgments about all things ...
we have the mind of Christ.
+ 1 Corinthians 1:15-16

And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
+ Philippians 4:7

What does it mean to have the mind of Christ right here, right now during a tumultuous year? Can the Spirit help me make the right judgment calls? And can the peace of God guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus? Is there an opportunity in the anxiety to meet Jesus in the mess? And after asking God the real questions in the real pain with a curious faith, am I willing to be asked questions by Jesus in return?

Chapter 4: God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality in Having the Mind of Christ by Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe was a helpful companion in considering the questions above this week. And perhaps there is something below that will help you be present with Christ right now with all that's going on in your heart and mind, too.


Jesus in Your Mess by House on Rocks


God Meet Us in Our Messy Reality
The Difficulty of Being 
Where We Really Are
(i.e. Trying to Hustle God)

Like the greatest friend (John 15:13) on the worst day of your life, God meets us in our messy reality. The God who is love, who is always present and at work, who looks just like Jesus, always meets us right where we really are, in the middle of whatever mess we find ourselves in. 

Every moment is always the right time 
and place to meet God. 
In fact, God often has to wait for us 
because we tend to expend 
enormous amounts of energy 
trying to be anywhere 
than right where we really are.

The habit of insulating ourselves from what's really happening is a survival technique many of us developed early in childhood. We hide from ourselves and others as a strategy of self-protection. We cope through escape and distraction, numbness and bypassing. We assume somewhere else is better than here and work hard to avoid being present to our current reality, especially if it's painful. The good news is God waits patiently for us, inviting us to come back to this moment, ministering communion-in-love right in the middle of our messy reality. 

Jesus knows our tendency
to be anywhere
but right in the middle 
of our messy reality,
which is why He spends a lot of time
calling people to deal straight with Him,
to be honest about what they want
and how they feel.

For those who choose to get real about their hidden agendas — whether caught in their sinfulness (John 8:2-11; Luke 5:5-9) or their shame (Luke 19:1-6) —they experience profound transformation in Jesus' presence.

Maybe this is part of why Jesus came eating and drinking with sinners (Matthew 11:19): they were people who would actually be real with Him. They were present to their own messy reality and weren't seeking to hide it from Jesus. Jesus delights to meet people right where they really are; He esteems and acclaims those who lack guile and pretense (John 1:47; 4:17-18), who are willing to name what they want.

What do you want Me
to do for you?

Most people in the Gospels, it seems, approached Jesus with ulterior motives and hidden agendas. They tried to test or impress Jesus, or hide from Him, or recruit Him for a self-justification project. We call this a hustle because this dynamic is best identified by two prevalent definitions: "busy movement and activity" and "a fraud or swindle." To hustle in a spiritual sense is to expend lots of energy to try to gain something from God (and others) by hiding, performing, or pretending instead of simply recognizing and expressing our actual state of being. Jesus doesn't indulge these fraudulent ways of relating, He subverts them. He frustrates these games because He knows that to indulge and feed a hustle would validate what is fraudulent in us. This, too, is how He loves us: He resists the deceptive and coercive ways humans attempt to relate to each other.

This dynamic isn't unique to the Gospels: the entirely of Scripture reveals that hustling is prevalent in humanity's interactions with the divine. Whether because of fear or shame or a bit of both, we rarely shoot straight with God. We try to either avoid God or get something out of God. Why is this? Because coming face to face with God — right where we are, just as we are — is often a humbling, terrifying experience (for example, Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8). But we can take heart that God looks just like Jesus — fiercely committed to unveiling our hustle and calling us to get real about our messy reality, because it's the only way to grow.


I am with You by House on Rocks


God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality
Being Present to God in Reality
(The Choice to Reckon)

When we say "our messy reality," we aren't so much talking about how things are out there in the world as much as we are talking about the internal state of our hearts, and our willingness to be aware of and present to it, instead of pretending or denying. Some refer to this as authenticity. Some call it living clean. Paul at one point admonishes the Thessalonian church to "keep awake and be sober" (1 Thessalonians 5:6). Jesus prizes this ability to be present inside and out.

For example, Jesus greets Nathaniel with, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" (John 1:47), probably alluding to the happy person in Psalm 32:2, "in whose spirit there is no deceit." This most likely refers to someone who owns and names and faces their wrongdoing. He praises Nathaniel for his integrity: his inner and outer world align.

Jesus knows that God fully meets us in our messy reality, so it's necessary for us to be right where we really are.

Those who encounter Jesus
find that they must choose:

Stay committed to their hustle
... or meet with God.

Wish they were somewhere 
/ someone different
... or meet with God.

Demand God be other than God is
... or meet with God.

Impress others
... or meet with God.

Be right
... or meet with God.

Recruit Jesus 
to be a part of their religious project
... or meet with God.

Maintain and solidify 
their power and status
... or meet with God.

Those who attempt to meet Jesus in pretense, self-justification, or illusion usually become hostile and angry at Him when He calls them into reality. For them, the power and presence of God's grace and truth are lost.

The soul sickness of the modern person is one of living anywhere but the present moment. This isn't new. Centuries ago, French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Our minds are little personal time machines: we can travel to the past, wallowing in regret or nostalgia, or to the future, indulging in worry or fantasy. Our modern, technologically enhanced lives only amplify this condition. We have myriad ways to distract ourselves from the present moment: entertainment, social media, food, drink, work, our task lists, exciting experiences, daydreams, video games ... 

We have collectively mastered
the thing that will keep us 
feeling distant from God:
the habitual practice of
not being right here,
right now,
open to reality.

This keeps us feeling distant 
from God because the primary domain
God has access to us is 
right here,
right now,
right where we really are,
as we really are.

We can give ourselves permission to simply be right where we really are. We don't need to fix it, or hide it, or compensate for it, or emotionally beat ourselves into a frenzy as a way of doing penance. We can just be here. And we can meet God here. This is how we avail ourselves, in faith, to communion-in-love.

(1)
Attune to reality 
and let go of spiritual bypassing.
Be mindful of bringing awareness
to current experience 
without judgment or condemnation

(2) 
Admit the details of messy reality,
own it, and face it.
The best place to be
when we are wrong is in agreement
with God about that wrong.
This is what it means to confess:
to agree with God about reality.
This is a courageous, intentional act.
And we notice what's real in
the kindness of God, 
which is the very thing that leads us
to repentance and transformation.

(3)
Accept God meeting you right here
in messy reality.
God is so real that this place
and this time is where we have access
to God's presence and power.

God loves the actual you,
not the idealized / perfect version of you.

What emerges from the Old and New Testaments is that sin and death stand in opposition to God and God's good plans for creation. Like cancer, sin and death infest our world and seek to choke out life and goodness. 

Like a good doctor, 
God does not detest the patient 
with the cancer.
Rather, God detests the cancer
in the patient.


Over and over in the Scriptures
we see that God is not driven
away by our sinfulness,
but actually draws near to us
in the midst of it.
(Genesis 3:9; Isaiah 6:5-8;

I lived as though God loved an idealized me, a future me, a less wretched and more faithful me ... but not the actual me. Shame becomes toxic when it becomes an identity and condemnation sets itself up at the core of who we are. This is different from conviction of sin. There's a big difference between being convicted of specific sin and living in ongoing, vague condemnation in our hearts and minds. If this strategy worked to bring victory over sin, then Christ died for nothing. We would have just needed God to crank up the condemnation rather than absorb it on the cross in Christ. We don't need the power of the Spirit or the cross of Jesus Christ to merely feel worse about what's happened in the past or may never happen in the future. We don't need the power of the Spirit or the cross of Jesus Christ to avoid, ignore, or bypass the area of our lives that cause us concern, grief, fear, or shame.

The revolution in my life began
when I understood and internalized
the truth that God doesn't love me
because I'm good;
God loves the busted and blessed,
broken and beautiful me.

because this is the you that God
has always known and always loved,
and loves right now.
You're not going to surprise God
by getting real.

The safest place in the world 
is to be who you really are
before a God who is always there,
waiting for you right in the middle
of your messy reality.


Come to Me by House on Rocks

God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality
Naming Reality
(Ex. Christ-Centering Prayers)

Prayer Practice 1

Sit still in a chair or lie down on the floor.
Take several deep, cleansing breaths.
Begin with a simple affirmation,

"God is now here."

With each breath,
use a word (like "here" or "Jesus")
to offer your attention
in surrender to God.

As you notice your mind running after
thoughts and feelings that come,
into the past or the future,
simply use your word ("here," "Jesus")
to bring your attention back
to the present moment.

The object isn't to master this or even
have some kind of spiritual experience.
It's simply a surrender to the God
who meets us in our messy reality.

Prayer Practice 2

Find a space you can be alone, quiet.
Take several deep breaths, become present.

Bring to mind a situation in life
you care a lot about and wonder if or how
God cares about it.
Name this situation in God's presence,
seeing the people involved,
feeling the emotions involved.
Tell God why you care about this.

Name what you want God to do.
Tell God what you wish was happening.
Tell Him why it's hard to believe
He cares about this like you do.
Use the last verses of Psalm 44 if helpful:

Rouse Yourself!
Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awake, and do not cast us off forever!
Why do You hide Your face?
Why do You forget our affliction
and oppression?
For we sink down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
Rise up, come to our help.
Redeem us for the sake
of Your steadfast love.

Stay here for as long as you need to,
until your heart is poured out
to God about this situation.

When you're ready, imagine Jesus
standing in front of you,
looking directly at you with 
a steady, attuned presence, 
receiving your emotions and
your questions just as they are,
without any blame or shame.
Imagine Jesus mirroring
the state of your heart back to you.

See His face change to resonate
with how you feel right now.
Imagine Him becoming
"greatly disturbed in spirit
and deeply moved" (John 11:33)
and going with you to your "tomb,"
the place of your pain.
Imagine Him weeping with you
about this situation.

Allow yourself to soak in His care
for you and for what you care about
right now.
What is Jesus saying to you?
What is He doing?

Now allow yourself to set aside
whatever it is you hope Jesus will do
about your situation, and shift your prayers
from, Why aren't You doing something? to
Jesus, I trust You that you care about this
more than I do. Show me how 
You're at work in this situation.

Try persisting in the prayer when this
situation comes to mind.
Jesus, I trust You that you care about this
more than I do. Show me how 
You're at work in this situation.

Make a note if anything changes or 
shifts in your awareness of your soul.
But if nothing happens, that's OK, too.
God can handle your anger, sadness, pain.
Don't rush through this or feel like
you have to complete the whole thing
if you aren't ready.
Return to this prayer practice,
intending to simply meet God
right where you are each time.

For some reason we think
that spiritual progress is marked
by lack of struggle in life ...
this is simply not the case.
Spiritual progress is learning 
to confront struggle in a new way
so that we don't struggle with the fact
that life is fraught with struggle.

+ Martin Laird

The mystery through all time and space
of God's participation and presence
in the suffering of all living things
makes the sign of the cross
an affirmation of all that is,
ever was, and ever shall be.

+ Fr. Maximos Constas

Adapted excerpts from
"God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality"
and
"God Cares About it More"
in 
Having the Mind of Christ, 
pgs. 70-86, 100-101

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan


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Location: Worcester, MA, USA

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