ORDER AND CHAOS

How do I separate myself from the rest? What will separate me from the rest? Where am I in life? What is my biggest fear? Why don’t I push myself harder? What is holding me back?

These are all questions that we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. I know that for me this is something that I honestly walk through most days and have to battle. Whether it is work, family life and marriage, or even in my ministry. We all live in a world where there is chaos all around us and sometimes we just want to live in what seems to be order, but what is chaos and order. I think that Jordan Peterson best describes them both in his book 12 Rules for life, “Chaos is where we are when we don’t know where we are, and what we are doing when we don’t know what we are doing, and order is the place where behavior of the world matches our expectations.”

What does this mean, when we start thinking about the questions above.

Are we to busy living in order so that we don’t have to deal with the chaos that is outside.

But we are all called to live in the chaos so that we can strive to the order that is coming. I love how Hebrews 12:2 shares Paul’s thoughts, “Looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus embraced the chaos not only in his death and resurrection but in his life. He was the founder, trailblazer, pioneer of our faith. He did things that know one else was doing, he did not try to stay in the order of comfort and what was expected of him. He embraced the chaos and uncertainty of life. As leaders we exist for uncertainty, if we all lived in order there would be know need for us to build things, grow, get better. We would just be and God did not call us to just be.

I challenge each of us to think about what areas in our lives that we are just living in order and staying comfortable, because it is easy. Once you identify that place, think about one way you can improve and grow in that area and enter into the chaos of the unknown and watch how God will grow you, because he is with you in the chaos.

What is your Chaos?