I’ll admit it. I don’t keep a tidy working space. Some of my tidier colleagues jokingly say that if you get anywhere near my desk you’re risking certain death. They simply cannot fathom how I can find what I’m looking for or be productive amidst the clutter of books, notes, coffee cups, and other paraphernalia.

I know. It’s sort of a mystery how I can get anything done. And I hate it when I can’t find my pencil, but it works for me. Thankfully, I’m not alone. Albert Einstein, who had a notoriously messy office, once recommended, “Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord find harmony.” Hmmm—there’s that mystery thing again.

The idea of mystery reminds me of a quote by Soren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” How true is that?

Let’s face it. There’s a mystery to how much of our lives unfold. We don’t have it all figured out. And I’m coming to see that mystery isn’t such a bad thing after all, especially when it comes to our Christian walk. Rather than something to be feared or frustrated by, we are to embrace mystery as an important part of living life with God.

There’s a reason God doesn’t tell us everything all at once. He gives us pieces at a time so we’ll keep coming back to Him. As a colleague (who tends to be more on the tidier side) recently put it, “Mystery is God’s invitation to intimacy.”