The Messy Middle

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit." — Galatians 6:9 (MSG)

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Have you ever been in the middle of something—a dream, a project, a season of life—where everything felt like a mess? Where you couldn’t see how it would all come together?

For the past 12 and a half years, I poured my heart into my small makeup and hair company. It was a dream come true. I had the honor of being part of hundreds of weddings, events, and unforgettable life moments. I witnessed countless women look in the mirror and feel their absolute best—and being part of that transformation was truly magical.

But in 2020, when the world shut down, my business came to a screeching halt. With no weddings, no events, and no clients, I felt lost. But creativity isn’t something you just walk away from—it shifts, takes new forms. That’s when I found myself picking up a different kind of brush.

Instead of blending contour and highlighter, I started blending colors on canvas.

For a while, painting became my therapy—my release. I fell in love with it, just like I had with makeup. The techniques are surprisingly similar: blending, shading, creating depth, and enhancing what’s already beautiful. But the other day, I realized something even deeper—how much this whole process reflects life itself.

The Messy Middle

I hadn’t painted in a while when I decided to tackle one of the most difficult paintings I’d ever attempted. It was a stunning piece—full of water and clouds—beautiful yet incredibly complex. About halfway through, I was ready to quit.

It looked terrible.

The colors seemed muddy, the clouds didn’t look like clouds, and the water felt flat. I could see the vision in my mind, but what I was creating looked nothing like it. Frustrated, I walked away.

The unfinished painting sat there for the rest of the day, untouched. I felt like I had wasted hours of my time. It just wasn’t coming together, and I didn’t know how to fix it. The more I stared at it, the more convinced I was that I should just give up.

But eventually, I decided to give it one more shot. I turned the tutorial back on and kept going, following each step carefully. Little by little, the colors started to blend, the shapes took form, and the painting slowly began to resemble what I had envisioned.

As I worked, a familiar realization surfaced.

I remembered how many times a bride would look in the mirror halfway through her makeup and grow anxious. They never outright said, “This isn’t what I asked for!” but I could see the worry on their faces. They couldn’t yet see the vision I saw—the blending, the highlighting, the details that would tie it all together. Because they didn’t understand the process, they doubted what I was doing.

Eventually, I stopped letting brides see themselves until I was finished. I needed them to trust me.

Trusting the Process

How often do we do the same thing with our lives?

We panic halfway through because things don’t look like what we imagined. We can see the vision in our minds—the goal, the dream, the finish line—but we’re stuck in the messy middle where everything feels chaotic and wrong.

And that’s where faith steps in.

In those moments, we need to trust the process. Just like my brides trusted me to finish their makeup and make them beautiful, we have to trust that God knows what He’s doing—even when things feel incomplete, confusing, or messy. He’s still blending, still perfecting, still turning your life into a masterpiece.

Maybe you’re in that place right now—stuck in the messy middle, questioning the process. Can I encourage you to keep going? Don’t give up. Even if your life feels like a chaotic mess right now, you’re just halfway through.

God isn’t finished yet.

And when you do finally step back and see the whole picture, you’ll be so glad you didn’t give up. The journey may take longer than you’d like, and the process may feel frustrating—but the result will be far more beautiful than you imagined.

Trust the process. God knows what He’s doing.

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My Prayer:

Lord, thank You for being the ultimate artist. Sometimes I get so frustrated because my life doesn’t look like what I envisioned. I panic in the middle of the process because I can’t see what You see. But I trust that You are working, blending every moment and mistake into something beautiful. Help me to stay the course, to keep going, even when things feel messy and uncertain. I believe You’re creating something far greater than I could imagine.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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God is still painting your story—trust that it’s going to be beautiful.