Danielle Strickland - A Beautiful Mess: How God Re-Creates Our Lives

By the same author:

Challenging Evil

Just Imagine: The Social Justice Agenda

The Liberating Truth

Boundless

To my Mom and Dad,

who endured the chaos

and were catalysts for

the beautiful mess of

my new life in

Gods Kingdom.

Text copyright 2014 Danielle Strickland
This edition copyright 2014 Lion Hudson

The right of Danielle Strickland to be identified as the author of this has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Monarch Books
an imprint of
Lion Hudson plc
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road,
Oxford OX2 8DR, England
Email: monarch@lionhudson.com
www.lionhudson.com/monarch

ISBN 978 0 85721 594 9
e-ISBN 978 0 85721 595 9

First edition 2014

Acknowledgments
Unless otherwise stated Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked NIV taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, a member of the Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved. NIV is a trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Extracts marked KJV from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches in the USA. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover image: Lion Hudson

Acknowledgments

Jill Rowe has edited this whole book, offered critique and content and designed the questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. Her commitment to leading people towards a creative divine design in their own lives is exemplary. Im so thankful for her life and her valuable help in writing this book.

Introduction

When people ask me how my work is going I almost always reply, Its a beautiful mess. I get a mixed response. Sometimes people measure success in stages of meticulous order. Others are gifted at crafting plans that are perfectly designed with sub-points for specific ministry goals at the exact incremental stages for optimum growth. Ive always envied lives that seem perfect. Ive never had one.

My experience of life with God is messy. Its a mix of failure and success, courage and fear, faith and doubt. Its well, a beautiful mess. If I were to tell the truth, since God invaded my life and welcomed me into a world of creative beauty, my whole life has been a beautiful mess. Its beautiful because its a witness to the creative design of Gods love in the here and now of our lives. My life doesnt look anything like it once did Ive been re-created by a designer who loves to recycle.

My life has taken a new shape. Its characterized by light and love; its an expanding world that is constantly changing and yet I remain rooted in the foundations of Gods love. Its filled with simple and complex truths that lead me to trust God and join Him in the invitation to bring heaven to earth. Its a celebration that, even if it looks a little out of control its in the control of a loving God who has a plan.

So, this book is an invitation. You are invited to journey into Gods creative plan to make a beautiful mess of your life and your plans. Like a master artist, He is ready to take the colours of your current life and craft them into a beauty that is beyond our comprehension.

This is how everything began, of course. With the original materials of a dark and shapeless void, the Hebrew creation story pictures an artist God who brings forth beauty from chaos. This story isnt used in this book as a scientific blueprint design, but as a window into the heart and strategies of a master designer. Im amazed at how the original design has implications in the way He is still designing. Shaping in us new beginnings of beauty.

The heart of this book is to celebrate the ability of a grand artist to make a beautiful mess out of everything, and then to join Him in the process. Heres to living a re-created life.

Danielle Strickland

Summer 2014

Chapter One

Inevitable Chaos

We should start at the beginning. Its how it all began. The world was created out of chaos. This is one of the most fascinating parts of the story from the Hebrews. And its a bit like all the other creation accounts from every other story told by people to try to explain why we exist. How it all started. Chaos. Its familiar in every single creation account on the planet and, if we are honest, its also present in every one of our personal lives. Chaos.

It lurks around every corner, waiting to grab us by the ankles. It hides in the middle of every conversation, waiting to unsettle us and cause us to question. It nestles in the heart of every activist who dares to believe that the status quo sucks. And it bubbles under the surface in every boardroom where some people secretly remember the story of the founder that seems to have been lost in the pursuit of better margins, stronger profit, and happier shareholders.

What is it?

Its an invitation to rearrange everything. Its the starting place for creation. Its the bucket of paint that the artist can make into something beautiful. Its the possibility that things can change for the better. Another name?

Chaos.

Encarta offers this definition of chaos:

1. a state of complete disorder and confusion

2. chaos or Chaos the unbounded space and formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe

3. the unpredictability inherent in a system such as the weather, in which apparently random changes occur as a result of the systems extreme sensitivity to small differences in initial conditions

( Encarta 2005)

For many people, chaos is a negative word. It is something that has to be righted; it is to be sorted out or perhaps hidden to create the illusion of order, even if it is only a temporary measure. Common understanding tells us that chaos is only ever a destructive force, quickly needing to be nailed down so that order can be brought to situations both personally and in our work scenarios. But what if there was a different way to understand chaos?

What if chaos was a good thing?

What if it was the root of all creativity?

What if it was the beginning of growth, personally and amongst the people and organizations we lead?

What if it was the seedbed of social change and transformation?

What if it loosed the chains of injustice?

What if it set captives free and actually began the process of repair in peoples lives?

What if it did its thing, and everyone saw that it was good?