One of the things I have learned through nearly 25 years of ministry, counseling, employment and, more recently, through one week of insurance training is this underlying truth: People are messed up.  They have health issues, financial issues, relational issues, issues about issues, and last but not least, sin issues.

It appears when I talk with individuals.  People reveal a lot of things about themselves as they talk.  How they talk about others tells me a great deal about how they handle relationships.  They begin talking and before they know it they have "revealed" a whole slew of issues within others, most of which probably would have been better left unrevealed.  They tell us things about themselves that allow us to better minister to them through prayer.  With any shred of honesty in them they know that many things were brought on by themselves.  They are messed up.  But God still loves them and, somehow, we must love them through these issues.

I see this when I talk to pastors.  Some have staff issues, some have health issues, some have church issues, some have financial issues, and some have issues to go with their issues. Most of them still manage to love the people that God has given them through their issues.  What I have found is that they are messed up.  But God still loves them and, somehow, we must love them through these issues.

I also see this when I talk with other groups.  Jealousy appears when they start talking about other groups.  Sometimes they reveal things about themselves and their individual situations that, most of which, deep down they know they brought on themselves.  I don't know all of the individuals in all of the groups we minister with, but I do know some of them.  They're not perfect yet God manages to use them in spite of their imperfections.  They are messed up.  But God still loves them and, somehow, we must love them through these issues.

I see it when I talk with family members.  Sometimes they have financial, relational, health, and ego issues.  They even have vehicular issues.  Now these individuals I know a lot better than I do the pastors, church members, and other groups.  God still manages to use these family members in amazing ways to minister to each other and individuals in churches that we sing and attend.  Let me tell you from a position of authority and from the standpoint of knowledge, these people are messed up.  But God still loves them, and somehow, we must love them through these issues.

I see it when I talk with myself.  Yes, I talk with myself and on most occasions I will even answer myself.  Sometimes I have financial issues, vehicular issues, personal issues, ego issues, anger issues, jealousy issues, and usually I find issues where I didn't think that I had issues.  I am messed up.  But God still loves me and, somehow, I must love myself through these issues.

What I am trying to say is that everybody is messed up in one way or another.  We try to mask it, over-compensate, hide it, among other things.  When it is all said and done, the issues are still there when we go to bed at night. We can talk about other people in order to divert attention away from the fact that we are messed up, but honestly, the person across from you still knows that you are messed up because they are messed up.  If it wasn't for the fact that I realize that everybody is messed up one way or another I would absolutely go crazy.  I think that is one of God's gifts to everybody.  One day we wake up and it hits us, we are all messed up.  When that reality slaps us in the face we no longer have to worry about how one group conducts themselves on stage.  We allow ourselves to laugh at ourselves and poke a little fun.  We lighten up on each other because God has allowed each of us to reach others that nobody else can reach.

So with open arms I embrace all of you to this messed up race we call humanity.  God still loves us and, somehow, we must love each other through our issues.