Messy Spirituality by Michael Yoconelli

Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli

What attracted me to this book, was the story I read in another book about a pastor who worked with a member of his congregations for over a year, preparing them to be a liturgist. On the big day, the liturgist approached the pulpit, took out the Bible and began to read the Bible passage as they had practiced. It was slow going, and the liturgist stumbled many times. It took about 20 minutes to read the scripture. But the look on the liturgists face when they completed the passage was worth every minute spent getting there and the pastor had tears in his eyes. After the service, the elders of the church called the pastor into his office and told him "that was an embarrassment... (and) can never happen again!" The Pastor was quite surprised because to him it was a moment of great pride, humility and thanks giving. The liturgist suffered from cerebral palsy. The pastor informed the elders that this wasn't the church he wanted to be part of. Worshiping God is not about perfection, clean lines and orderly events. It's about worshiping God in all our messy glory. The story was so moving to me, when the author said the Pastor was the father of Mike...the author of Messy Spirituality, it immediately spoke to me.

Too many times I've been to church when an elder has been upset with the noise from the children, or the fact that service went long or that people are too loud in hallway. I'm a firm believer that worshiping God does not occur within in a building but anywhere you choose to be. The book, Messy Spirituality, supports that idea and takes it farther. The author talks about spirituality being something that we have because we are not perfect, so why expect our spiritual traditions to be perfect. He challenges us to see the imperfections as the evidence of God in our lives. He encourages us to keep working at it, regardless of the mess. Through his teachings, he reminds us of all the ways in which we experience God and demonstrate our own spirituality each day- and all the mess that surrounds those actions.

If you need a realistic and inspirational approach to spirituality- then this book is for you. You can't get any more real than some of the things described here.

Showing kids you love them 3 min.

The book, Messy Spirituality is available from Amazon.com