A Place For Messy Faith

Creating a space where art, faith and real life
are welcome exactly as they are

A few years ago I took over a moms group at our church. I told the women on the first day that if they were looking for the mom who had everything together, they might want to try the group a few towns over. I am definitely not that mom. But if they wanted someone who was a little bit of a hot mess… I was their girl.

That group taught me something incredibly important about the way I share my faith and my life. I wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But I was willing to be vulnerable and create a space for real conversations to happen. Our moms were able to show up exactly as they were without judgment and know that God created them to be exactly the type of mothers that they were.

Those moments taught me that the most important work I can do for God is to share exactly who I am, exactly how He’s changed me, and continue to create an environment where anyone can show up, set down their mask, and just be.

Fast forward a few years and God started laying on my heart that it was time to introduce this space to a new audience. I love being an artist. I have been creatively worshipping for over a decade since I started “coloring in my Bible.” I watched the Bible journaling community form from its infancy and saw tribes of creatives sharing the Word and lifting each other up.

Then last September we witnessed a man who loved God lose his life to bitter violence, and the thing that struck me most in the weeks to follow were the number of people around the world who were sharing that they were turning to God for the first time. I felt God nudging me to create a space just like the one from our moms group years ago. A space where it was okay to be a messed up, broken believer. Someone who might have more questions than answers. Someone who was carrying a world of baggage and needed a way to express it. And Hot Mess Art was born.

I want Hot Mess Art to be a home for messy faith and messy art. Where the scribbles and smudges in your Bible become prayers. Where paint, paper, and journaling become ways of working through the things we carry. Where you can wrestle with hard questions, celebrate quiet moments with God, and remember that faith isn’t about having it all together.

It’s about showing up honestly.

My hope is that this space becomes a place of encouragement, creativity, and community. A place where you can explore Scripture with your hands as well as your heart, and where the creative process becomes another way of listening for God’s voice.

I’m so glad you are here.

If this kind of space resonates with you, I’d love for you to stay awhile. Explore the blog, try one of the creative prompts, or share your own messy, beautiful journey of faith and art along the way. We’re building something honest here, and there is always room for one more at the table.

Ink It Out

Sometimes faith looks like fighting for joy. Sometimes it looks like singing through the sadness until your heart remembers how to find peace again.

Journal Prompts:

• Where do you feel the pressure to have everything together right now?
  Write honestly about the places in your life where you feel like you’re supposed to appear strong, polished, or put-together. What would it look like to let God meet you in the middle of that mess instead?

• What part of your story feels unfinished or confusing?
  Are there questions you’re still wrestling with in your faith or your life? Instead of trying to solve them, write them out as prayers. Let the page hold the questions.

• If your faith looked like a piece of messy art right now, what would it look like?
  Would it be scribbles? Layers of paint? Torn paper? Dark colors with bright ones breaking through? Describe or sketch what your faith feels like in this season.

Scripture to carry with you:

“My grace is sufficient for you, of my power is made perfect in weakness.”
— 2 Corinthians 12:9