Welcome to Chaos
Friday, March 7th, 2008This isn’t so much of a post about anything in particular, as post about the everything and nothing. I guess what I’m referring to is the way life tends to run so many things together and tie them up with so many knots, that its impossible to untangle them and isolate specific strands. You can try pulling on a string at random, but you’ll probably only make the problem worse, and one can only hope that what comes out of the mess is relatively orderly. But perhaps the most aggravating part of life is the way everything can seem so clear at one moment, and the next day you realize that your newly found order was nothing but an illusion.
Enough with analogizing. In a nutshell, life is confusing, and oftentimes feels more like a game of whack-a-mole than a race to the finish.
Before I kill anyone with this overly philosophical post, I will end it with a quote I read yesterday that may hold the key to some of the chaos.
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Thanks for the very thoughtful post. You should philosophize more often.
I just read a book about metaphors that had an interesting passage about life. It said that we usually operate under the “Life is a story” metaphor, picking out certain events to make things seem structured. But when things get mixed up and the coherence is muddled, we’re more apt to agree with King Lear:
“Life is a tale told by an idiot Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
Maybe when you listen to yourself, you relize that you’re an idiot, not a storyteller.
Probably the best idea is to trust God. You know? He understands exactly how confusing life can get, and He affords little helpful tidbits through other people and situations. So when pulling what looks like the right string ends up tangling the whole mess even worse, find what God wants you to do.
Um, that last sentence didn’t come out right at all. Someone knocked on our door and I just clicked “submit” without thinking
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My last sentence, not Lydia’s.
Amen, brother! I totally agree! Preach it! I especially agree about the idea that we’ve found order but then find that it was nothing but an illusion. At the same time, well, I don’t know. I think you need to be careful. We are so easily infiltrated by our world’s mindset that nothing can be known. Even Ben, my little 8-year-old brother said the other evening, “We can’t know anything,” a totally post-modern statement.
Perhaps I’m waxing philosophical about nothing and probably not making sense. But it does seem as though life is a confusing mess. The only thing not so confusing is the fact that God holds us and loves us. I know, sounds so mushy and cliche, but it’s true. Check out Zephaniah 3:17.
God bless you!
Hey, update and tell us if the chaos in your life has diminished at all! otherwise, I suppose we can count on seeing you on Saturday?
It was really great to see you again at RMC! Hope you enjoyed coordinating facilities….