The Messiness of Life Can Distract Us from/or Help Us to Focus on Those Things That Lead to A Good Life

My relationship with New York Times best-selling author and speaker Matthew Kelly dates back to 2004 when another New York Times best-selling author and friend Patrick Lencioni brought him to my attention as a potential speaker for the Diocese of Oaklands Catholics@Work (C@W) Speaker Series. Despite his very busy schedule, we were able to bring this much in demand Catholic evangelist to St. Isidore Catholic Church (Danville, CA) in August 2005 on behalf of C@W. It was estimated that we had upwards of 1,500 people attend, all squeezed into a church that only comfortably held 1,100.

Kelly mesmerized the crowd with his Australian accent and humor, his personal story of becoming a Catholic evangelist, and what he learned about the most important things in life. As an example, “don’t compare yourself to anyone else! Do racehorses when running a race look at the other horses?

We brought him back in 2006 to conduct a three-day Lenten Retreat on “Becoming the-Best-Version-of-Yourself” in which he examined what makes dynamic relationships and how we can foster greater intimacy in our own lives, to include intimacy with self, others, and God.

Now with 29 books published, and book sales exceeding 50 million copies, a wiser Kelly, with five children and having survived a very scary bout with cancer, shares his evolving insights on life in “Life is Messy.” Unlike earlier books, this book is not focused on what Catholicism offers but rather, what he has learned about life.

Although unsaid, it is clear to me that each of the book’s 78 topics resulted not from some organized plan but rather, were random essays which he wrote along the way and then compiled them for this book. Some feel the book is disjointed. It is but life, too, is disjointed.

Some reviewers found the book negative and felt it was not his best. My reaction has been different. I loved the book and feel it ranks with his best. Kelly is an excellent writer. His writing is raw and provocative…he writes about what is, not what we would like it to be.

Not all of the topics will resonate with the reader as our life experience is different, but my bet is, many, if not most, will.

Some of the topics include:

·???????The Human Dilemma

·???????When Nothing Makes Sense

·???????Emptiness

·???????When Evil Comes to Visit

·???????Life Can Change in a Single Moment

·???????The Normalization of Evil

·???????Everyone is Fighting a Hard Battle

·???????Three Good Reasons to Do Anything

·???????The Four Absolutes

·???????The Main Threat to Your Wholeness

·???????The Spiritual Experience

·???????Measuring Your Life

·???????The Good Life

Kelly draws much of his inspiration for many of the topics from some unexplained setback or failure he experienced. My only ding on this book is that Kelly left the question of what happened open…the reader is left hanging, unable to empathize and connect with him and the cathartic experience that inspired many of his powerful entries.

On my first reading of the book, I used it as a daily reader, one topic a day. “Messy” was my source of daily meditations and reflections and provide me with a strong and balanced starting point for each day.

Kelly believes, "Life is short...dedicate yourself to the things that deserve your dedication." It is important to focus our time and energy on the things in our messy lives that fulfill our legitimate needs physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.

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