Vance Joy's Mess is Mine is a tune constantly on repeat in my world. It can provide me with energy to press forward positively, it can allow for surrender of my mind, and it often reminds me of a solid truth:

I was not made to hold my mess with my own two hands.

So often, we find what is "wrong" with our lives or ourselves, and grip those things with white knuckles, vowing to change their shape or put back together the broken pieces. We hold them so secretly, so tightly. They are our own mess, and only ours. Not something we can share, but something that is supposed to remain hidden away. After all, if we created the mess, we should be able to fix it on our own. Me, me, me.

What is wrong with this picture? It is not conducive to real change. How often have you claimed something would end up different by your own efforts and power, only to be left with a mess bigger and ickier than it was in the beginning? We simply aren't equipped to sustain ourselves through our own abilities and strengths.

However, I know someone who told me to cast my cares upon him, to hand my yoke over to him. I know someone who calls me by name and reminds me of his triumph and his work to redeem all things, all pieces of my life. He asks to carry my mess, to make my mess not just mine, but his, in partnership, in communion. It is with his strength and power. The strength and power of my Father, my Savior, my Sustenance. This is who I can hand my mess over to, and use my voice to say, "help me. I am tired of trying to glue things back together on my own."

And he teaches me to look at his face, to look into his eyes for the bread of life needed day in and day out. He teaches me to speak and let it go, trusting that I don't have all of the tools and energy to solve every problem I face. Trusting that he will provide the people and resources I need to clean up my mess.

My mess is not mine to put in a little box and hide behind my back as I scramble to tie things together.

To the same tune, you were not meant to do it alone. You were not made to hold things quietly to yourself. We were made with better stories in line. Stories that don't start with us and how awful we are, but stories that begin with our Creator, our Redeemer, and how wonderful He was and is.