In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1:1 (NLT)
Most of us hate chaos. When life feels like a rollercoaster ride our need for control puts butterflies in our stomach and screams in our brain. Yet we all know that the most important times in our lives are uncertain, chaotic, fearful, adventurous, courageous, and just plain wild, uncontrollable chaos. We see this in the very first verse in the Bible. Three Hebrew words describe the chaos at the beginning of our planet. The first is to which is translated “formless” it literally means “confusion, empty place, wasteland”. The second is “waabowa” which is the Hebrew word translated as “empty” or “void”- - - it means a “meaningless desolate wilderness”. And the third Hebrew word is “choseck” which is translated as darkness and it literally means “misery, destruction, death ignorance and sorrow”. These three words describe the chaos that the creative power of God hovered over (some translations say “vibrated with”). This word is used to describe a mother bird as she hovers over her eggs to bring them to life. This is the dance that the Spirit of God did with chaos.
How do you react to chaos in your life? You are going to face it sometime- - - in Leadership Wisdom From Unlikely Voices David Fleming has a chapter on how good leaders handle chaos. He says, "Simply put, chaos is not the enemy of life and creativity. It is, rather, a necessary ally.” Pamela Meyer, in her book Quantum Creativity, tells us to embrace chaos and when she gives this lecture to business people they usually chuckle. The point is that the avoidance of chaos leads to all kinds of problems including the most basic one—unwillingness to embrace the quality that brings creativity to the surface (and that would be God!) When our lives feel chaotic it’s time for the Spirit of God to hover over us and to do His work. Chaos is part of the divine energy of life. It brings us to the brink of either madness or meaning. God invites us to become a part of His creative process. You see God is always creating. Even if formless and void describes part of our lives. We all know that from hindsight- - - when we look back at chaotic times, we see that creation and meaning came not in spite of that season, but as a result of it. To live in the midst of disturbance, (chaos) is to live in the stuff of creation. I guess this isn’t impossible unless we are working with the Creator, but it is adventurous when we see the chaos as an opportunity for the Creator to do something new in our lives.
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White
2 comments:
Too true
Very true
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