Personal: What matters is living in the mess.

I am a self-confessed nerd. Long after I was supposed to have grown out of them, I kept reading The Magic School Bus series. There was something so exciting about eight-year olds the size of red blood cells or a big yellow bus that became a space shuttle. I was fascinated by the science of everyday life.

And since repetition is the key to all learning, I still remember what Ms. Frizzle would yell as she turned her classes loose on the surface of the moon or in the ventricle of someone's heart:

Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!

My poor parents must have hated this stage of my development because I refused to clean up after myself. My room was an exercise in chaos theory (still is, actually). I grew experimental strains of bacteria in the bathroom. I needed to see things for myself.

I don't have to make all the mistakes in the world for myself and I can learn from others' experiences (which keeps me alive most days). But I think that a crucial part of being and becoming a real human is a willingness to engage with the mixed-up, crazy world around us. We grow to know a God who loved humanity so much that he too came here to be in it and show us what it is to interact and take chances. I can't escape my need to follow Jesus into and out of these same daily encounters, and to find him right there with me in my messes.