God isn't afraid of messes

I’m told that the word in Hebrew is “tohu wabohu” and that it means: “formlessness and normlessness.” If I could put it into my own words, I would call it a “mess”. Not just any mess, either, but the kind of mess that you really don’t know what to do with. The sort of mess that stops you in your tracks, and all you can do is stand there and stare at it. This is the kind of mess that you just don’t quite know how to begin picking up. “tohu wabohu” a chaotic, formless, ball of confusion. In the beginning, this is what God starts with. In Genesis 1:2 we read about it: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void…” God starts with a formless void, tohu wabohu.

The word in ancient Greek is distazo. It can mean: to wrestle with two thoughts at once. It’s what happens to us when the extent of our faith is only “maybe”. The word describes what it feels like to have a heart that’s overflowing with questions. In Matthew 28:17, it’s where Jesus leaves his disciples: “When they saw him they worshipped him and they doubted.” Jesus leaves them with doubts. He departs while their hearts are bursting with questions. He takes off when their faith is at just that “maybe” level.

Think back to the last time you had doubts. If you’re like me, then most likely, right now you’re thinking back a matter of minutes, or hours, or, if you’re lucky, days. Think back to the last time you can remember when you could honestly say that your life was completely free from chaos? Was there ever a time?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus leaves his disciples in this condition, on their knees worshipping him, while their hearts are still full of questions, while their minds are wrestling with all kinds of competing thoughts, while their faith, if we’re really being honest, is an absolute mess. You can almost hear them saying: “Let’s get this straight: you came down to earth, you died, then you came back from the dead, and now after all of that, you’re leaving again?!” What they’re experiencing is chaos. Chaotic faith at the rollercoaster ride Jesus has just taken them on. Chaotic questions about what happens next. He was the center of their universe, and now they’re wondering what they will do without him. We know the feeling when it happens. Often, we call it a mess.

It’s hard, most days to look at the world around us and not see a mess. I don’t need to list the places, you know them. If you turned on the tv this week or read a newspaper, you saw the chaos in our world. If you spoke to a co-worker who was wading through the struggles of life, then you heard it in their voice. If you went out of your house, walked down the street, passed by strangers looking for meaning, then you caught a glimpse of it. All of it points to a messy world that is rarely as orderly as we would like. Then, there are the messes in our own lives. The chaos we can’t seem to bring order to. Everywhere we look, we see that we still live in a chaotic world. And yet, we still worship…and, we still have our doubts. We’re just like the disciples.

If, when you look at your life, you feel that’s the case, then you ought to be thankful. If your life is messy, you are blessed. If you have chaotic places in your relationships, job, inner person, then rejoice! Rejoice because it seems as though God does his best work when things are messy. Think back to that formless void that was there in the beginning. What did God do with it? God reached down. God touched it. God took it in his hands and pulled the chaos apart and made things like: light, day and night, sky, land, plants, fruits, vegetables, all kinds of animals, and last but certainly not least, humans! Out of the chaos, out of the mess, God made you and I.

God takes that ball of messiness that is swirling around in all different directions, and this is what God makes out of it. And then, God gives every bit of it to you and I. Think about that for a minute. God creates order out of confusion, beauty out of formlessness, a world that makes sense out of something that had no sense to it at all, and then…God gives it to people like you and I. God gives the world to people whose lives often swirl with doubt. God trusts people whose lives are often messy with the sun, moon, and stars.

God doesn’t seem to mind working with messes. At the end of a ministry in which blind people saw, paralyzed people walked, hungry people were fed, and sinful people were forgiven, Jesus, God’s own Son, winds up in a real mess. The crowds are shouting for his life, the disciples are scattering in all different directions, the cross is being raised, the nails are being sharpened, and God is in Heaven, somehow ready to deal with all of it. Somehow, God is ready to reach down to touch the pain and the rejection, the sorrow and the shock, the death and the silence, and make something new out of all of it. Ready, once again to create new life out of a senseless, formless, messy void.

When it’s all done, after the death is conquered and the darkness is dispelled, and the Son of God rises to new life and appears to disciples who worship, even as they doubt. Then, once again God reminds us “I made all of this possible, and I’m giving it to you” Jesus stands on the mountainside and tells his worshipfully doubtful, his sanctified messy people to go into all the world with his blessing, with his forgiveness, and with his life. No matter how messy, no matter how chaotic, no matter how unsure you are, he says “Go and tell them about me. I’m the God who works miracles out of messes.”

The next time you feel overwhelmed, uncertain, full of doubt, or like your life is a complete mess, remember, God isn’t afraid of messes. In fact, God does some of his best work with the messiest stuff there is: tohu wabohu, distazo, and you and I!