Dealing With Chaos

We hear it; we feel it; we want it: to bring order out of chaos. And often we can – with closets or cupboards, with schedules or desks or drawers. But with the bigger chaos – climate change, Covid, abortion and gun debate, immigration, polarization, there is a temptation to seek order in the many silos that provide quick and easy answers. Those silos – which usually become echo chambers, provide the illusion of order, because they keep pumping out messages that either deny the chaos or have a sure- fire method to fix it.

Instead of treating chaos as a threat, if not an adversary, there is a long-standing tradition to view chaos as an opportunity. “In the beginning”, the author of Genesis writes, “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). It was chaos. No order. And out of that chaos came creativity. Now we can endlessly debate if and how God created the heavens and the earth, but those questions are a distraction from what is the fundamental message of this particular creation story: chaos begets creativity. Chaos can be generative. Chaos holds possibility. To my mind, that was and is God’s purpose – to foster creativity, and to impart to us the capacity to be co-creators in the unfolding of creation.

Like most, I have an ambivalent relationship with chaos. Most of the time, I avoid the chaos or try to fix it. And then feel some satisfaction when the desk is cleared and the closet is straightened out. And there are other times when I am almost addicted to chaos: when my schedule feels overwhelming or my thoughts run all over the place, or when I go down a psychic rabbit hole of disappointment and self-recrimination; and for the life of me can’t seem to bring myself out. And I just keep spinning and can’t stop. Order? Forget about it. It is psychological and chronological disorder; and those are just some of the dysfunctional ways I avoid the deeper chaos.

The first thing that God created out of the chaos was light: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). The writer of John’s Gospel maintains that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5) Darkness can overwhelm. Psychological or spiritual darkness can seem unrelenting and paralyzing. But light, even the tiniest amount, can destroy darkness. For the scripture writers, and for people of faith over the generations, light is the manifestation of hope. Light shines in the darkness, in the chaos. Light doesn’t necessarily lead us out of the darkness and chaos, but can guide us through it.

Advent is a season of ascending light in the annual descending (in the northern hemisphere) of light. First one candle, then two, until all the Advent wreath candles are lighted. All of which is preparation for the “true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9) That light came out of darkness, out of chaos. It brings creativity, which is a key ingredient of hope. Light shines in the darkness.

Christian author and activist Jim Wallis has written that ‘hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change.’ When considering the evidence of the bigger chaos issues – it can feel like a darkness that stretches to infinity. No hope anywhere.

Light a candle. Let it become a symbol, if not a beacon, of hope. Let it expose the darkness – and the chaos. And generate some creativity. Lord knows we need it.

Emerging Moral Obscenity

It is a moral obscenity.  It is said by some that white Afrikaners in South Africa are the victims of genocide, but there is no data to support the claim. It is said that the cohort of Afrikaners coming to America are refugees, but there are indications that they are...

The Ordering of Love: a New Debate in the Culture Wars

Several decades ago, a national debate raged over a question that helped launch America’s ongoing culture war:  who can you love? One side was insistent that love – which would involve intimate sexual expression – should be confined to a man and a woman. A popular...

Make America Great Again: A Clamping Down on Paradigm Shift

In April of 1970 the United States decided to invade Cambodia, thus expanding the Vietnam War. I was nearing the end of my freshman year in college. Campuses around the country rose up in angry indignation. Protests were planned, strikes were proposed, marches were...

Teach Us to Care and Not to Care: T.S. Eliot

It is becoming harder and harder to achieve emotional, spiritual and in some cases physical distance from what is happening in this country.  I hear more and more people saying that they are reluctant to buy, sell or make changes to their home because the economy is...

Ep 22 – “The Greatest Unifier” with Rick Joyner

In this episode, I welcome Rick Joyner, a prominent Evangelical leader, author, public speaker, and founder of Morningstar Ministries. We explore how to respectfully build mutual understanding and work together across differences. Rick shares about his life-changing conversion, his strong support for President Trump, his belief in God as the greatest unifier, and the challenges and hopes that he sees for the country. We also discuss finding unity in diversity and the ongoing pursuit of liberty and justice for all.

Fossil Fuels, Easter, and Pope Francis

For more than two hundred years we have been pulling former life out of the ground to heat our buildings, power our cars, run our machines, illuminate our lights. Fossil fuels, so named because they are the remnants of plants, animals and living microbes which, over...

Palm Sunday: Two Very Different Demonstrations of Power

They came into the city through separate gates, almost at the same time. The first was a procession that demonstrated power: Pontius Pilate’s power, backed by all the forces of the Roman Empire. The second procession was smaller, feeble by comparison, and it...

Personal and Systemic Racism: A Critical Difference

“Personal racism has gone down”, a wise colleague told me recently, “but institutional racism has gone up.” This is both good and bad news.The good news is that over the decades of my lifetime more and more people have become increasingly sensitive to the issues of...

Privilege Can Drown Out Pain

“The secret to white privilege is that if you don’t want to hear something, you don’t have to,”  my mentor Ed Rodman said in a video retrospective:  “A Prophet Among Us”...

Dealing with Psychic Lactic Acid

I was about six strokes from the finish of a 100 yard butterfly race in an age-group competition this past weekend when my arms gave out.  The last two strokes looked like I was drowning. I could barely get my arms out of the water.  Fifty-five years ago I was a...
Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join my mailing list to receive the latest blog updates.

You have Successfully Subscribed!