My church is messed up ... I mean, really messed up. I love the fact that messed up people are welcome—not only to attend, but to belong. The world is full of messed up people who desperately need help. What better place for them to be than in my church? If history tells us anything, Jesus' church should be full of publicans, prostitutes, profligates and sinners—messed up people.

Sometimes messed up people make me uncomfortable. I forget that I am chief among messed up people. I start thinking that I'm getting pretty spiritual. I love God, am making progress on the sin problem, and really have a desire to be holy. I inadvertently (I would never do it intentionally) begin to compare my spiritual progress with those around me.

Almost always I find reasons to believe the people around me are a lot more messed up than I am. My only safety is to keep my focus on Jesus. The more I look to Him (the closer I get to Him), the more messed up I appear in my own eyes. That's when healing begins! When I give my mess to Him.

I begin to see others through His eyes, I begin to appreciate their value and experience His compassion for their pain. I begin to see that we have something else in common: We love Jesus and want to be more like Him. Which means, by the way, we become partners with Him in rescuing more messed up people.

Gary Burns is the communication director of the Lake Union Conference.