March 2008
Life
Can Get Messy Around the Edges
Dear Friends,
 Early
in our married life, I believe my
wife was secretly chagrined to discover
that she had inadvertently married
a “Felix Unger” prototype:
a person sometimes obsessed with neatness,
order, and organization above all
else. Today, if pressed hardly at
all, I imagine that “my other
family,” the Cathedral staff,
could give numerous examples of what
a trial working with – and for
– a “clean freak”
can be. Hiring a new cleaning service
for the Deanery a few weeks ago, people who really understand what
clean means and who really do it,
was practically a religious experience
for me.
Unfortunately, human beings are not
always – or even often –
inherently clean and neat (or even
organized) when it comes to the course
of their lives. Almost every person
and family I know have issues where
life gets messy around the edges.
Jobs are not perfect; interpersonal
relationships are often even less
so. It is the truly exceptional person
who is successful in compartmentalizing
life’s difficulties and in dealing
with issues and individuals separately.
For most of us, “spill-over”
occurs. A problem with a spouse or
a child can interfere with our job
performance or may cause confusion
in our relationship with God or with
others we encounter.
The message here is simple: in spite
of my best efforts to make “church
life” clean, neat, and organized,
most of us who contribute to the “life
of the church” are rarely perfectly
put together with no ragged edges
showing. The good news in all of it
is that Jesus doesn’t expect
us to be perfect in order to participate.
The community of the Christian Faith
may be one of the few places left
in our society where being perfect
and totally put together are not a
requirement for belonging and being
valued.
So even if you’re not feeling
perfect or altogether thrilled with
your life at the moment, remember
that there is a place for you in God’s
House. There is always Someone waiting
to greet you, to welcome you home,
no matter how things are going at
the moment. God is there for us when
life gets “messy around the
edges”.
Faithfully in Christ,
The Venerable Theodore W. Bean, Jr.
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