Why are we in this mess?

I love Gideon's question found in Judges chapter 6, verse 13. In my own words it reads something like this: "If the Lord is with us, why are we in this mess?".

Gideon is told that the Lord is with him, but his logic is based on the circumstances around him. And those circumstances were bleak: Midianites had leached away prosperity and left many cowering in caves. Gideon himself was using a winepress to thresh wheat as his own way of eeking out survival for his family. 'In this mess' is a good description for their plight.

The angel's reply is simple: "Go in the strength you have and save ...". The circumstances were irrelevant, and thus the logic that went with them rendered redundant. There was a calling from God, and that transcends everything on the ground.

Of course Gideon misinterpreted 'the strength you have', foolishly equating it with his own personal strength (which wasn't much). It was the Lord's strength, something given by God for the purpose. Again human logic redundant.

Seek the Lord, discover His calling and purposes, and learn to go with it. There may be mess all around, which logically might suggest to you that little can be achieved. Yet in the light of the Lord's calling such logic is redundant, the 'why are we in this mess?' effectively irrelevant ... because there is a God-called task to get on with, and He will give the strength to do it.