The -TY Mess

Yesterday, I used the sh- word, and I don’t mean shoot or shucks. It was a solid four-letter word said with emphasis. And I didn’t say it just once or twice but several times right in a row. I was forcing myself to do a task in a way that was new to me. I was being stretched and challenged. I was frustrated.

I used the same word with regard to what I was producing as a result of this new approach. The only difference was that I added the –ty ending to appropriately create an adjective to describe my noun. My partially finished task was a mess, and it remains that way even now.  Contrary to my usual way of doing things, I left it in its –ty state because I know that is how it is supposed to be at this point in the work.

Parts of my spiritual journey have been somewhat like this. The work of the spirit begins to stretch me in new directions. Habitual ways of being are challenged. Life gets crappy, and there I sit in the middle of it. What saves me is the knowing that this is how it is supposed to be at this point in my journey. Hope assures me that somewhere down the road lies a clean watering hole with a bar of soap and a soft towel on its banks. This is the hope that carries me through the –ty mess.