Some Days

The Mess is an open arts studio that provides opportunities to create art and relationships with those who struggle with issues of brokenness and poverty. At The Mess in Kingston, Ontario, we walk alongside people in our local community, offering hope and empowering healthy life choices. We are a supportive community of differing socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, physical abilities and genders. We welcome people of all ages to the studio. The foundation of The Mess is built on these core values: equality, empathy, community, fun, respect, trust, tolerance, support, and encouragement. The Mess is best described as "a safe place to create and relate!"

Some days are harder than others. Some days are full of joy--you can sit back, laugh, and have a great time with everyone. Other days are filled with pain. People’s cheques didn’t come in on time to pay their rent and they are being evicted from the little low-income home they have. He’s gone several days without food and is only asking for a few bucks from your pocket for a snack, she’s looking for clothes, because the only clothes she has are the rags held together by a few strands on her back. Simply holding on, living, day by day to survive. Not knowing when the next storm is going to come their way. One day is a good day--they are pleasant to be around, cheerful, living positively, glad to be alive. The next day they are distraught because their sister who was addicted to drugs overdosed and has passed away. How does one cope with that? How do you find a silver lining in something that is quite negative and destructive, corrupted by sin? How can you tell people to stay positive when their world is collapsing around them? Is telling them you will pray for them enough? Does it mean anything to them?

Society is so caught up in our materialism that we forget that there are people living among the wreckage we throw our garbage in. We ourselves are so corrupted by sin that we forget that these are real people with real struggles. Not struggles of having an uncharged phone, or not having the right food in the house. Struggles that involve not having any food in the house, or losing someone you love to a preventable cause. There is a need in our city, in our lives, for Jesus to come down and shine his light upon us all. Yes, well-off people need him too, but the people struggling to hold onto their life need him through us. We need to shine His light in their world, show them the silver lining through our words, actions, our generosity, and our time. We need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and help these people. We watch people grieve in a healthy way for what appears to be the first time in their life. We need to be there providing love and support through this confusing time. We need to be the shoulder they can cry on, the rock to their foundation. The friend they never had. We take relationships for granted so often and think we can pick and choose our friends. Some people live with no friends at all, no family, no one to listen to their joys or sorrows.

Some days you need is a hug. Some days you need is a friend. Some days you need to re-evaluate your own life, take all that you have and praise God for it. Some days you need help and some days you need to help. Some days could be filled with joy but instead are encrypted with pain. Some days you realize we are more alike than we are different.  Some days…