He Meets You Right There in the Middle of Your Mess

G=Goals O=Outlook A=Authentic T=Truth (#coateisaGOAT)

I had a whole vision for this spring break. Georgia. The grandbaby. That kind of good that fills you all the way up. But life — and work — had other plans. When a job needs to get done, it gets done, and Richie wasn’t able to get out of town. So here we stayed, in Navarre, and I’ll be honest with you: my first reaction was disappointment.

But y’all. Sometimes the Lord redirects you, and you don’t even realize it until you’re standing in the middle of it.

I dove into every overdue project I had been avoiding — closets, drawers, cabinets we never open, junk drawers, forgotten corners of the house that had been quietly accumulating for longer than I care to admit. I got back to my Passionate Penny Pincher planner with my checklists, which I love and sometimes let slip. And then — this one made me smile big — I discovered that the FlyLady method I found years ago and actually shared with my mom has an app now. My mom and I were literally just talking about it, the way we used to print out the lists and do the routines together, and now here it all is: every zone task, every weekly checklist, every routine that sets you up to actually take care of your home — right there on your phone. Thank goodness for technology when it actually works for us.

And here is what I know to be true: calming the chaos in your home starts calming the chaos in your mind. The two are connected in a way we don’t always give enough credit to. A lot of the time, my mind is busy — loud, spinning, full. And as I worked through room after room, checking things off, watching order come back to places that had gotten away from me, I could feel something settle. It wasn’t everything. But it was enough. And that mattered more than I expected it to.

Now here’s where I have to be real with myself, because that’s what we do here. My work week starts back tomorrow, and I already feel the pull to try to keep up this same pace. I love a checklist. I love that feeling of completion. But I also know that what worked during a quiet spring break week is not what’s going to be sustainable when real life is fully back in motion. I’m going to have to find balance. And the harder part of that balance — if I’m being completely honest — is actually letting the people around me help. Because sometimes I pick up every single task like it is mine and mine alone to carry, when the truth is that the people I love are glad to pitch in if I will just tell them what’s needed. That is not weakness. That is something I am still learning.

And then there was Sunday. You know I hold my Sundays as almost sacred — that reset time, that quiet space to prepare for the week ahead. So when we had a birthday party to celebrate two of our dear friends, part of me had to make a choice. But I woke up a little earlier, got my things done, and we went. And I am so glad we did. We are fortunate people. Our friends are genuinely good people, the kind you look around the room at and just feel grateful for. We had a wonderful time. I still made it home to finish my evening routine and get ready for Monday, and it all worked out. It doesn’t always — but it did this time, and that felt like a little gift at the end of the week.

We’re still in the series at church on telling our story, and today’s message landed exactly where I needed it to. The idea that sometimes God places things in our path — redirections, closed doors, changed plans — not to take something away from us, but because something else matters more right now. Not getting to Georgia felt like a loss at first. But maybe it was more important for me to calm some of the chaos here at home. To do the things I keep putting off because I’m too tired, or because it feels too hard, or because I’m not asking enough of the people around me. The avoidance is always more comfortable in the moment. But the Lord keeps nudging: do the uncomfortable thing anyway. Trust it anyway. Even when it goes against the norm. Even when it’s hard to get started.

And what I keep coming back to — what I really want to carry into this week — is that He does not wait for you to have it all together before He shows up. He doesn’t need your house clean or your mind quiet or your list finished. He meets you right there in the middle of your mess. He loves you there. And you are enough in that.

Here’s to the week ahead, sweet friends. May we find our balance, lean on the people around us, ask for help when we need it, and trust that the detour we didn’t plan was still a path He had in mind all along.