Real love is messy.

So as a Christian and as a Pastor, I often come into contact with people at very hard times of their lives or when they are messed up in some way or another. Here are just a few of the problems of people with who I have dealt in the last few years:

• Abuse (both those who are doing the abuse and the abused children themselves). Physical and emotional.
• Affairs
• Neglected children (both those who are doing the neglect and the neglected children themselves)
• Divorce
• Property crime
• Chronic lying
• Many and varied psychological diagnoses from depression to bi-polar to schizophrenia.
• Addiction to substances of all types and sexual additions of various kinds.
• Eating disorders and cutting
• Homelessness
• Hunger
• Suicide
• Homicide

Beyond these "big" visible types of problems, almost everyone who comes to church is broken in some way or another, including me. Many people have learned to hide their brokenness, but as God deals with them it often comes out.

Furthermore, some of us in church are just plain weird. We might be extreme extroverts (like me) or we might be introverts. Some are on the autism scale, some have Down's syndrome, some like rock music, some like organ music, and some people like the Green Bay Packers.

My point is that if we are going to do ministry like Jesus and do the ministry of Jesus and become more like Him, then we are going to have to learn to love people broken, weird, messed up people. Furthermore, the more you minister to these oddballs, the more you realize that you are one of them! You see Jesus died not come to minister to the health, but the sick. He did not come to die for the good people, but the damned people. He did not come to have a party with those who were already his friends, rather he came to be killed by his enemies, so he could make his enemies his friends. 

Yes, he came to transform us, so that we can live more like him, in the way he created us, but we are all still in the process. If we are to see his kingdom grow we are going to still be reaching out and loving all kinds of different people.

This is hard!! I mean it is very hard! It is really messy.

Just today I saw a story of a man who intentionally ran a car into a group of people and got out and said "Thank you Jesus." Now this is not what Jesus wants any of us to do. We are not called to kill people in his name. We need to love and sacrifice for people, and be willing to die for them instead of kill them. On the other hand, it would not surprise me at all if this man actually had attended a church recently. Sometimes screwed up people are trying to get in touch with God, but they are still screwed up. Sometimes screwed up people lead churches and give people really bad and unChristian doctrine while in a church service. Both of these things were happening in the churches to whom Paul wrote, so why should it be different now.

Does this mean we should stop reaching out so that things are less messy? No, it means we need to get on our knees every day and pray for strength. Pray for transformation, so that Jesus will help clean up our mess. Pray that we will be able to love the unlovable with his unconditional love.

The gospel of Jesus Christ changes messy lives into abundant lives, but truly abundant lives overflow with the good news of the gospel into the lives of those around them. If you know Jesus, and if he is changing you, then you can and will love all the other messy people around you.