Romans 8:3 In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. (The Message Bible)
I have found that I must beware of horizontal surfaces. They quickly collect papers and periodicals and books and correspondences and become unruly. At home they consist of dining room tables and coffee tables and bureaus and night stands. At the office it is my desk. The clutter is composed of items I can’t (or won’t) just throw away but I don’t want to (or won’t) deal with at the moment. The piles grow and sometimes collect dust and sometimes become a source of anxiety because I suspect I should be addressing what lies buried there. It is a “disordered mess” and sometimes causes consequences as something is left undone past a critical due date. “Disordered mess” is the Message Bible’s rendering of Paul’s description of the human condition. It’s like the world is one big horizontal surface on which semi-forgotten people and convictions and commitments have collected helter-skelter for so long we hardly see them anymore as we pass by. Paul’s excitement about Jesus is that in Jesus God addresses the disorderly mess of individual lives and even the big picture of history. Important items get unburied and set in order. If God could straighten the cluttered spiritual horizontal surface of your life, would you want that? This week, where is your horizontal surface?
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 