How to be holy AND messy

To contemplate the sacredness of messiness, start with the natural world. Step into the forest and study the rotting logs. Examine the erosion. Notice the tiny and the grand, how transformation and evolution have designed the landscapes, and the simple and small. See the surrender of one creature to another, the wildness of complete metamorphosis and how all fungi feast. Forage for the messages hidden from the Great Creator among the edible offerings and beneath the swooping birds of prey. 

Or surrender to the experience of a beach. Feel the sand beneath your feet, the water swirling around your toes. Listen to the sea for lessons about love. 

Hug trees. Study cacti. Remember you are part of the expansive wonder of creation, dependent on the sacred soil, air, plants, and animals for your existence. This messy, beautiful world is a holy gift: a symphony to revere, embrace. 

Love the world.

Next, to contemplate the sacredness of messiness, examine your interior life. Open your mind and observe your thought patterns, your attachments, desires, and dreams. Consider the sacredness of your story, the holiness of the human experience. Ponder the holiness of your highs and lows, your heartache and happiness. Wander through the discomfort of uncertainty and doubt. 

Identify the pressures to be anything other than your authentic, good self. Name the truth of who you are, and stay steadfast in the struggle to be true to yourself no matter what message you are getting from other forces. Resist the temptation of worldly greatness. Reject the patriarchy and capitalism and every human-made system that seeks to oppress ordinary people like you. Breathe deep and pray with sincerity. Allow the Holy to guide you, daily, on the pilgrimage of continual conversion. Stay small and steady and say yes to life, to the abundant life that Jesus gives. 

Love yourself.

Then enter into the messiness of the Christian tradition and her Judaic roots. Notice how the whole of Salvation History is a story of conflict, violence, land grabs, agony, despair. Understand how Scripture came to be the Living Word of God, speaking to us of deeper messages than what we usually read: God is always good and faithful, present, holy. The people of God are a mess, often projecting their ideas of how God helps and rescues and favors them more than others. Allow your understanding and respect of Christian Tradition to be stretched, broken, rebuilt with reverence for the brokenness and turmoil, for the complexity of human history intertwined with the arrival of God as a tiny babe in the womb of a woman. Read the Holy Bible with an awareness that it is a love letter from Holy Mystery inviting us to love each other better and allow the messiness of love. 

Say yes to the call to love.

To embrace the sacredness of messiness, re-read the Gospels. See Jesus Christ in all his messy vulnerability, humility, and generosity, from his birth to his ascension. Learn from Jesus’ surrender to a higher power, his Father in Heaven. Take his teachings seriously. Talk to him about your life, doubt, questions, concerns. Imitate his nonviolence and acceptance of rejection. 

Notice how Jesus’ friends and followers are mixed up, broken, confused, and goofy. Imagine how you could fit among the first crew of Jesus people. See yourself as a character in the Gospel, one of the poor and foolish. Contemplate the cross, believe in The Resurrection. Stay open to the wildness of the Holy Spirit. Say yes to The Way of Jesus, and let Jesus’ way mess up your worldview, your priorities, your whole life. Serve the poor, challenge the rich. Get behind the oppressed with all your might as they fight for justice in the here and now.  

Love everyone.

As you love the world, yourself, God, and all people, allow the mess of being part of the Body of Christ, the Church, to make and remake you. Pray with the paradox of heaven being nearby and beyond us. Allow yourself to be disturbed, uncomfortable, undone by the horrors of sin, injustice, war, violence. Grieve with the victims. Mourn with the survivors. Raise your voice with the weak, discarded. 

Stay steadfast in your determination that a better Church, a better humanity is possible and find a way to change the world to reflect more of the peace and justice that Jesus Christ established. Rebuild the Church, like St. Francis of Assisi. With whimsy, walk on your hands so you can see the world upside down. Proclaim joy to a humanity reeling from fear, despair. 

Again and again, insist on more love for everyone. 

As you do these things, you are living with a spirituality of messiness. How you pray, listen, partner, advocate, serve, and love God and the world is all messed up. You disturb the status quo with your love and charm, welcoming others into the sacred mess. As you live with a spirituality of messiness, you are willing to allow every imperfection found in family and community life. You have a built-in habit of forgiveness. You regularly practice detaching from your preferences and centering the other and letting go of control. You realize that all your favorite people are broken, and so are you. 

Along those lines, you flow with the regular messiness of unwashed dishes, laundry, dust, fighting family members and understand that tidy and polished versions of family, home, and community life are usually fake, promoting a false idol. You see how God’s love and holiness are revealed in the diaper pail, the compost pile, and exhausting committee meetings. You allow the creative work of cooking, writing, painting, and more to teach you what is real and holy. You do your daily examen, and see again and again how living with the spirituality of messiness means that you must love those nearby, center the messiness of relationships, and constantly work at regulating your emotions. You hope to repair relationships with the offering of grace and mercy and as you declare the truth.

With love in your voice, you say yes to the messy reality of people. 

With messiness and its holiness defining you each day, you now see sacredness in those who are abandoned and ignored, the incarcerated, the hungry, unsheltered, marginalized. Jesus Christ speaks to you through your friendships with those who systems and tyrants  want to stomp down, reject. Messiness has become your pathway to God, compelling you to dwell in the cracks of society, because that’s where you encounter God. The works of mercy and holy activism are your preferred activities. Along with holiness, human rights are a constant pursuit. You become poor and live more simply. You have a tendency to pick the subversive path and bring people together. 

Once the sacredness of messiness has become your whole spirituality, loving your neighbor starts to look a lot like working on yourself, looping you back to loving God and God’s good creation. By your being, breathing, actions, and beliefs, you are loving the sacredness of the messy Jesus business. 

Welcome to the mess! 

Dear Messy Jesus Business readers and listeners,

It’s been a joy, honor, and thrill to host this  online ministry, Messy Jesus Business, since 2010. Thank you for being part of the mess, as a reader, listener, community member and friend in Christ! Though the Spirit’s summons is now pulling away from hosting this ministry to focus on other offerings, you can still find me online at my author site and elsewhere. If you are new to Messy Jesus Business or would like information on its history and growth, I suggest starting at our About page. Enjoy the goodness here!  

As I sign off from offering new content on this page, please receive my blessings and sincere gratitude. May Jesus and the beautiful blessed messy Gospel guide your journey, and support you along the way.

Thank you!! 

Peace & All Good,

Sr. Julia Walsh, FSPA

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Sister Julia Walsh is a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration based in Wisconsin. A storyteller, poet, and community-builder, her ministry experience includes teaching, retreat facilitation, preaching, spiritual accompaniment, justice advocacy, and caring for people who are unhoused and incarcerated. Sister Julia is the author of two books including For Love of the Broken Body: A Spiritual Memoir and is the founder of Messy Jesus Business, a website and podcast that explores the messiness of modern Christianity. The author of numerous articles, her work has been featured on the BBC, Relevant Radio, U.S. Catholic, America Media, and National Catholic Reporter. Today she serves her Franciscan community as a vocation director and speaks to a variety of groups about topics such as creativity, contemplation, and Gospel living. Sister Julia has an MA in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union and is a certified spiritual director. Find her on Instagram as @JuliaFSPA.