CHAOS.
This is the word that comes mind when I think of the upcoming holidays. You can feel it in your bones… its brewing.
Tomorrow we Americans will celebrate our gratitude and appreciation on Thanksgiving Day. And the following day we will celebrate our greed and consumerism on “Black Friday.” Sprinkle a little extra family time into the momentum approaching Christmas and the New Year and suddenly your November/December makes the new Jackson Five Tour reality TV show look like a Partridge Family bus ride.
This year has been particularly chaotic for my family. It started with traveling cross-county to Texas to help my parents move back in together after seven years of separation. But as I watched my family pieces fall together, I found front row seat as my church family fell apart. We made it through, but after a gut-wrenching church split, I am not sure if my heart has mended yet. And at what seemed like the hardest possible time, I stepped into a promotion as a district youth pastor for our church denomination, consequently leaving my wife and I with our hardest decision to date: to leave our beloved local church and youth ministry after 5 amazing years. 12 years for her. Did I mention that this is the same year I finally graduated college after breaking a school record for taking the most classes online and on campus in a single semester? That somehow I trained for and ran the LA Marathon? Entered the real-estate world? And my wife is halfway through her first pregnancy with a baby boy?
Chaos.
Tomorrow as I sit round the Turkey Day spread and listen to each family member take turn expressing gratitude toward our faithful Father, I might just skip over the part where I thank God for getting me through the chaos. Of course he walked me through it! I am pretty sure He saw it coming and walked me straight into it! No, if I have to pick one thing to be especially grateful for, I will thank Jesus Christ for PEACE amidst all the chaos and transition.
There is a story in scripture about a man named Daniel who faithfully followed God throughout a lifetime of chaos and transition. I am talking about the kind of chaos and transition where your family is ripped from your home, exiled to a foreign country, and your allegiance to your God lands you on the wrong side a King’s temper and walking around inside a burning furnace. But the truth is, when the smoke cleared and the chaos calmed, Daniel came out on top and the king ended up appointing him as one of the highest positions of authority in the most powerful nation in the world.
But eventually that kingdom was overthrown and a new king took the throne.
Which left Daniel, an 80 year man at this point, amidst a whole new realm of chaos. Scripture says that as this new season transitioned, Daniel was so “distinguishable” in all his doings as the new king’s chief of staff, that a promotion was around the corner naming him ruler over the entire kingdom. Well, his jealous subordinates wouldn’t stand for that, so they conspired and formed a hater “fan club.” After hatching a plan hinging off Daniel’s only weakness, his devotion to his God, the fan club approached the new king with a flattering proposition: a straight month dedicated to worshipping him as king! And if anyone prays or bows to any other god other than the new king, then they will surely suffer death in the bottom of a lion’s den!
The king signed the bottom line and made it official.
According to scripture, when Daniel heard the news, he grabbed his cane and waddled his 80 year old butt straight home, slid his curtain out of the way, opened his window as wide as he could so the whole city could see, and got down on his rickety old knees to…
PRAY AND THANK GOD!
I don’t know about you, but I would have a hard time focusing during my prayer time as images of being eaten alive by starving lions flashed through my mind. Not to mention my soggy pants.
Somehow Daniel appears to retain PEACE amidst CHAOS.
Maybe this is what the apostle Paul, the author of Philippians, was explaining as he penned the letter to the church in Philippi amidst his own chaos sitting in a prison cell.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the PEACE of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Maybe there is a connection between CHAOS, PRAYER, THANKSGIVING, and PEACE.
Maybe it is a formula: CHAOS + PRAYER/THANKSGIVING = PEACE
Maybe when we get down on our knees and thank God for all the times He has been faithful to us so far, never once letting us down, our prayer/thanksgiving serves as a catalyst within the chaos. In this place, in this posture, where the future may be blurry but the past is clearer than ever. He is a good God. He is faithful. He loves you. And nothing is going to change that.
Then, as we return to our feet, we can walk peacefully into the chaos He leads us through.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
chaos shmaos !!!! its the big L wat are ya gonna do but roll w da punches ! oooooooooooooo wait that means i just got punched and it hurts, so off to the docs …………………..peace it can only get worse ,i mean better
Bro, good stuff. You seriously have been through a lot this year. I can totally relate and reading through this has really helped challenge me to take a look at that equation. If my peace isn’t there then maybe I forgot to add the whole thanksgiving part or maybe prayer part. Chaos is sometimes inevitable as God tends to like to lead us in that direction only with good intentions of testing and strengthening our faith. It sucks, but God pulls us through it. I need to start being more thankful for past times where God has brought me through and allow that to give me peace in my current situations. Thanks bro. Love ya
Chris!! listen to yourself! you sound like such a man of God! Miss ya bud.
If the Lord tells us to be grateful, it is not because that is a formula which magically rewards us with peace for obeying God. NO! That is because grateful people are happy people and happy people can attain peace easier.
You should be proud of the way you’ve handled this past year. Let’s pray that 2010 will be a less chaotic year, but then again, with a new baby, you shall soon enter a much more pleasantly chaotic world. Happy sleepless nights and poppee diapers.
Sha,
I agree that grateful people are happier people, but do you really believe “happy people can attain peace easier?”
Guess we would need to define “peace” and “happiness.” As I get older, I am beginning to experientially understand and learn the difference between happiness and joy. Satisfaction and Peace. Contentment and fulfillment.
Justice, I must admit that I have seldom, if ever, seen the kind of changes that have nearly torn the Lighthouse in such a short period of time. So many of you seem to be moving on. John, Raymond and I were looking at one of the pictures downstairs one day, and the other men, who have been at the church much longer than I have, commented that most, if not all, of the people in the picture are gone. But the fact that the church has not only survived but has thrived in the face of all these shifts is a testimony that the Lord has indeed something special for it to accomplish and for Pastors Rudy and Myra to receive.
Remember when David first found favor with Saul, and Saul gave him a detachment of troops to lead. Then Saul turned on David, forcing him to flee and take refuge in the wilderness. There, 400 men, who were described as disenfranchised and distressed, followed him, and he would later turn these needful people into an army of Samsons, his “mighty men.” Our church has split off, and the people whom God wanted to move have been moved, because they have chosen to worship and serve elsewhere. The Lord has also launched people, like you, Maria, Brian, Nolan and Jay, because your discipleship at the church has ended, and all of you must now go to another level of ministry, of leadership. But since you all are leaving or have left on good terms, your connection with the church remains unbroken. Therefore, whatever you accomplish during this new season will only strengthen us as well, because the anointing of our church will always be with you, and you get to build on it wherever the Lord takes you henceforth.
From a ministry standpoint, chaos is not always bad. Sometimes it is a refining for something more pure to emerge. After all, the quality of the oil is not known, so to speak, until it is pressed. It was rather ironic that, on October 25th, the day you guys announced to the church that you were moving on was also the fourth anniversary of my ordination. I remember that summer well. My girlfriend at the time tried to kill herself twice, because she couldn’t get over her past, and even if I tried to move heaven and earth for her, she broke up with me five weeks before I became a pastor. But far from things settling down, every year since then has been even more chaotic. You better get used to it, it’s what our job is all about. Some well-meaning people have approached me in the past, wanting to be pastors, and I’ve told them you might as well sign up for a suicide mission…but it does have its perks once you get used to it!
For myself personally, I always look forward to the hustle and bustle of the holidays, because there’s always something happening… Despite the commotion, there is life and a joy that is shared. I do want to be able, and am learning how, to be like David, the great anointed king, who, in the midst of all the chaos and drama in his life, could sing: “Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His lovingkindness from me.”
Above all else,guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23
“Great topic”" Chaos I find that word really powerful, for I fall into chaos most often. Were all so quick to judge but dont realize that we fall short of any “Gift” that the “LORD” has for us when we forget to put him first. I love all my friends even though sometimes..I fall weak minded and take judgement when I know that the proper way of life is to give not too receive, but when I talk about receiving. I mean lets take time to enjoy what the Lord has giving us before we even think about it in a bad way, We only live once why allow chaos to win, Lets thank chaos for being apart of us and find ways to turn it around, without letting it win over are good judgements that we have for others or for things that come into or life’s that we may not be ready for but choose to work with to make us better humans. “God is great, together we are great”
Happy thanksgiving