Chaos

There wasn’t any spot on the bedroom floor for even one item of clothing. Not in the home I grew up in. For some years, I shared a small bedroom with four brothers and two double beds. The standard for clothing and floor space was pretty well-defined: every item had to go somewhere before we left the room.

At times, up to twelve of the fifteen children were resident in our house. One can easily imagine the threat of chaos that lurked just around every corner, and that sometimes made a brief appearance. It’s not hard to understand that a higher standard of orderliness might be needed in such a household.

I didn’t always appreciate my father’s efforts to bring order into chaos. At least sometimes, he required a level of order that seemed, to me, much more than the situation warranted. I’m still processing some of those values, and I now appreciate most of them.

As I have grown older, and have lived and worked in a variety of communities, I have often thought about the various standards and definitions of chaos and order.

I tease one of my friends that his two-car garage only has 6 items in it, including the cat. It is the epitome of order. It intimidates me, because my garage is a busy and full space with a little room to walk and work. I’m waiting for spring to come, so that some order can be restored. I struggle to prevent chaos from ruling there. It’s called procrastination.

I would easily admit that household chaos and order are “in the eyes of the beholder,” and there may not be a standard by which everything can be measured. One person’s completely relaxed “order” may drive another’s sense of “chaos” right over the edge.

And yes, I am somewhat aware of the OCD phenomenon, and of other complicated emotional and mental factors. Let’s leave that category for the pros.

Here’s what seems to matter most: there’s a level of chaos in life that leaves us feeling hopeless, out of control, and fearful. That chaos is dangerous and discouraging. No matter one’s standard of orderliness, the realization that chaos rules is a disheartening and hopeless feeling.

It seems to me that all of human responsibility relates to bringing order from what is, or could be, chaos. Chaos is not resolved randomly. It will not go away on its own.

One of the key evidences of adulthood is the growing ability to confront our own blocks of chaos. Would someone please advise our political leaders about that?

Relationships, living conditions, community, physical survival—all are moving either toward order or chaos. We may not create it all, but we participate in it.

Beginning with the first words of the Bible, we learn that God moves in creation to bring order out of chaos. From the very beginning, he also determined to partner with humans to keep our world wonderfully alive with fruitful orderliness and to prevent societies and environments from spiraling back into chaotic darkness.

As we experience family, community, and national tensions it is tempting for us to lose heart in the periods of seeming chaos. Anxiety and hopelessness gain strength.

We don’t all need to become control freaks, or obsessively compulsive in order to respond to areas of chaos. And we will wait a long time if we expect political leaders to sort it all out, and to model for us how to restore order to chaos.

Instead, we are invited to partner with God in a new version of Kingdom, to learn from the life and teachings of Jesus how a healthy orderliness replaces the despair associated with personal and societal chaos. It’s definitely worth exploring.