God's Chaos Theory

God’s Chaos Theory
Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Ever feel as if your life is pure chaos?
In a condition of complete confusion?
Disordered and formless, sort of like the condition of the universe before Creation?
Ever feel like things just aren’t going the way you planned?

Most of us feel like that from time to time. Some of us feel that way every day.

Well, science has an explanation for all this chaos in life.
It’s called Chaos Theory, and it suggests that chaos is normal, and it asks us just to accept it.

Chaos Theory is the study of forever-changing complex systems.
Chaos Theory has been used to model biological systems, some of the most complex systems in the universe. Chaos Theory has also been used to model everything from population growth to arrhythmic heart palpitations, and from the spread of epidemics to the sounds of dripping faucets.

Now, if that made absolutely no sense. And, it doesn’t to me. Here’s a more simplified version. Chaos Theory claims that things which appear chaotic and unpredictable, like the weather, are actually very dynamic systems that are put together by elements that are extremely sensitive to the slightest change in the system.
In other words, Chaos Theory is The Butterfly Effect, which says that the change in air current caused by the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Honey Brook, could produce a large enough variation in the atmospheric system to set off a chain of events causing a tornado in Kansas.
Bottom Line—Chaos Theory is an effort to show how and why all things happen, or come to be.

Long story short: According to Chaos Theory, chaos is the force which determines the future of the systems that are behind the life in everything.
In other words, Chaos rules the universe.
Therefore, according to Chaos Theory, if your life isn’t going the way you planned, just accept it because it is the result of chaos.

Well, my friends, I have come today with a word from the One who has created all things and is the source of all life. And, God does not just sit back and allow chaos to rule the universe.

My friends, Chaos Theory is a poor excuse for a cop out if I’ve ever heard one.
Chaos rules the universe—just accept it? NO!
Chaos is the new normal—just accept it? NO!
We are Christians. We follow Christ, the Word of life himself.
We refuse to accept that millions of people in poverty is just normal.
We refuse to accept that hatred and war are just components in the system.
We refuse to accept that grief, pain, and despair are just emotions-get over it.
We refuse to accept that it’s just fine and OK that more than 60% of our neighbors here in Honey Brook remain unaffiliated with any form of organized religion.

We are also not willing to accept that chaos in and of itself is evil, or even the source of that which causes all things to go bad in this universe.

You see, we follow Christ, the king of the universe; the Word of God that when spoken at the dawn of creation caused all things to come to be.
Therefore, we refuse to give chaos any authority at all!
When God gets to work, chaos is the very raw material that He puts to use. God speaks and chaos must listen and get its act together. Contrary to several popular perspectives, chaos is not an evil reality that persists beyond God's authority, providing a negative backdrop and potential threat to God's world. No, God speaks, and chaos is turned into order.
With a word God commands chaos to become ordered, God flips on the lights, separates light from darkness, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

This does not mean that chaos does not exist in the life of the Christian. Oh no! Quite the contrary. God’s vision of creation is one that actually includes chaos as if it is a raw material built in. Consider this. When God goes to work bringing shape out of the formless chaos, he then creates opposites that are held together by God’s laws of attraction and companionship. Light and dark. land and plants. Sea and air. Sun and moon, male and female. God’s plan for order involves the chaos imbedded in expecting opposites to live together in peace and harmony, held together only by God’s laws of attraction and companionship.
Men, ever wonder why God made women so crazy different than us?
Women, ever wonder the same?
Now, have you ever wondered why God commands that men and women, who are soooo different live together in marriage for a life-time?
I mean you only have to be married a short while to begin realizing that this invention was imbedded with a certain amount of chaos from the start.
You see, God has inserted a certain amount of chaos into our lives.
Why is that?
Well, one reason might be that we are made in the image of God. If God is able to do his most amazing creative work with nothing more than a little bit of chaos, then maybe our lives require a gentle dose from time to time as well.
Think about it. What good creative innovative things have you ever dreamt up when you were completely satisfied with everything just as they are?
What has challenged your faith to struggle more actively than the chaos within your life?

Now, do not hear me saying that chaos is simply something that we all just have to live with, therefore get over it. NO! That contradicts my first point.
Chaos is never something that we are just to ignore or abandon.
But, chaos that is entrusted to God brings about creative ways to restore order, and therefore peace, and life.
This is a second reason why God has embedded all of creation with a gentle dose of divine chaos. Because for most of us, it is when we are facing the troubling stuff of life that we finally entrust our chaotic lives to God.

Contrary to chaos theory, chaos does not rule this universe: God does!
Therefore, in our chaotic lives, in our chaotic world, in our chaotic church, God reigns!
When we entrust Him with the chaos we find direction and hope to bring shape and form out of what looks to us like a hopeless mess.

This brings me back to my earlier question about the human experience with chaos:
Ever feel like things just aren’t going the way you planned?
My friends, the scripture is clear on this.
Life ain’t our plan. It’s God’s plan, and it has always been God’s plan.
If you’re life is guided by nothing more than your plan, then there’s a warning in scripture—Read Job, Read Ecclesiastes, Read Proverbs etc. etc.-LIVE LIFE ACCORDING TO YOUR PLAN, AND YOU WILL CREATE EVEN MORE UNNECESARY CHAOS FOR YOURSELF.

Today’s scripture offers us a promise from God—LET GOD LEAD YOUR LIFE, AND CHAOS BECOMES THE VERY PLACE WHERE LIFE AND ORDER BEGIN TO TAKE SHAPE.

Its like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.
There are all these pieces scattered around in no order, it’s a mess.
Our lives are a lot like that.
When putting a puzzle together, the picture on the box is our guide.
But, it’s like we lost the box top somewhere along the course of life.
But, recognizing that we need it, we go in search of one. Then, when we find one that is appealing to us, one that we like, we assume that it will do.
Trying to live without God, is like trying to build a puzzle without the picture on the box!
However, since life is God’s puzzle, when the image we are using to put the pieces together is God’s image, then we start to make an even bigger mess of life than that which is before us.
We force pieces together that don’t belong.
We ignore the proper boundaries of the puzzle, selecting the wrong pieces to serve as the edge.
The puzzle of life only gets harder the more we continue to work it.

My friends, this is God’s creation, God’s image of life that we are puzzling with.
Its not ours!
And, God didn’t, nor does He ever create without a plan to overcome the chaos. Out of love for you and me, and all of creation, God has provided for us the picture on the box of the puzzle of all creation.
This picture is the mercy, love and promise given by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Word of God is the image God provides to put our lives together.
His life and teaching instruct and guide us.
His death on the cross corrects us of our sin, and reminds us of God’s love and mercy for us.
His resurrection restores us, and renews us.
When we entrust our lives to God, we find that the pieces come together, they fit the way they are supposed to.
And with God’s help, the chaos begins to fade beneath the rising of a new creative idea to try.

With God, chaos has no authority. Chaos is actually, the very stuff that God uses to create all things beneficial for you and me.
So, when life seems to be ruled by a daily dose of chaos—ask yourself if you’ve been living according to your plan, or if it’s God’s?

Because God’s theory of Chaos is that Chaos has no power.

And whenever life becomes ruled by chaos—remember, chaos is just the stuff that God uses to begin something new.

Today, give your chaos to God, let go of your control, and entrust Him with it.
Then, listen, watch and follow as God begins to use your chaos to bring you to new life.

Amen