Expect to be in Mess

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted…for if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” - Galatians 6:1

What did you expect from your career, job search, marriage, marriage after kids, singleness, dating, homes, friendship, and Christianity? Expectations shape most of our experience in life. Some of our expectations can be spot on, while others can be completely off. I expect to have my demands for world-class, authentic Neapolitan pizza satisfied while in New Haven – spot on. I never expected to start the inevitable balding process at age 28 – completely wrong on that one. Like my balding head, most of our expectations will be challenged and changed in our lifetimes. Our expectations of what it means to be a Christian should be the same: continually challenged and undergoing change.

Paul is challenging and possibly completely changing our expectation on this point. Paul is telling us that our faith carries an expectation to be restorers, specifically, and burden bearers, generally. Challenging? I think so. Do you live life expecting to be in the mess of other people’s lives? We can’t expect people’s lives to be changed if we don’t expect to jump into the mess of life with them.

In order to understand our role as restorers, we need to understand what it means to be “caught in sin.” It is to be overcome in such a way that you need outside help getting out. It’s like swimming through a thick patch of seaweed. If you are a decent swimmer you could slowly make your way through the entangling vines that wrap around and tug at your legs. But the Bible gives us a vision of life that affirms we’re not good swimmers, we’re bad swimmers. We easily get caught in a patch of seaweed and need one another to get out. We are sinners that easily get entangled in sin. The key to getting out is transparency; the vulnerability to be known as a bad swimmer (i.e., a sinner) stuck in seaweed (i.e., caught in a sin). The problem with transparency is that it is the last thing sin wants. Sin will make a heart feel so corrupt and twisted, it convinces you to shove it further into the dark corners of the heart. In so doing, it isolates you and keeps you alone in your sin.

Thus, the role of the restorer becomes crucial. To “restore” expresses the image of something that is misplaced and needs assistance to be put back in order. Like a dislocated bone, something is clearly not as it should be. Someone must apply the necessary pain to put things back in place so that healing can happen. “Gentleness” is of extreme importance with dislocated bones and with those caught in sin. Gentleness calms and eases the tension of a troubled heart. Do you understand the weight of your role? You have the ability to either keep sin in the dark or bring it into the light. You can assume a morally superior disposition, expressing itself through quick criticisms, or you can offer humble, listening ears as one who knows what it’s like to be caught in sin. Are you someone who causes sin to hide or someone who enables sin to expose itself?

As an American Christian, it is easy to foster a morally superior disposition. But, “If anyone thinks he is something…he deceives himself.” We’re never above the sin or the brokenness of the human heart. The Gospel grants us an understanding of our brokenness and creates humility and courage. As our awareness of brokenness deepens, so does the vulnerability and transparency of others. We need a Gospel disposition: we are more utterly screwed up than we think we are, and we are more utterly loved than we could ever imagine. You who are in Christ are deeply loved, yet deeply sinful, and still in the process of being restored.

Do you live life expecting to get in the mess of other people’s lives? We can’t expect people’s lives to be changed if we aren’t prepared to jump into the mess with them.

Jon Yeager