Do You Have a Chaos Meter?

How's your chaos measure today?   Having a peaceful day, an ordered day, or one of chaos?  Is your chaos inner or outer chaos? 

Often it's both.   I reckon if you could measure chaos with something like a metal detector, mine would often go off, beeping like crazy. 

It's Saturday morning, time to tidy up the week's chaos and put everything back where it came from.     In every room, there are messes, big and small, where things have been dumped because people, big people, little people, have dumped in their busyness, tiredness, laziness, immaturity, or just not knowing where to put things.   I walk into one room to put something away, and in that next room, I find yet another job, or two or three.  And then there's the washing, folding, ironing (let's not mention the ironing - my chief ironer has spent the week in the shearing shed - the ironing is reproducing there in the dark, I'm sure of it), the fridge, the toilet needs cleaning, the bathroom, the car is amazing (not good amazing), the 'school' table is covered with many, many bits and pieces, the spare bed is much the same, and the toddler is busy making her little messes behind me, almost as fast as I can put things away.     Aaaaah!   

Been thinking about chaos a lot lately and how it's at the opposite end to Shalom, which is God's ideal for us.  

What is Shalom again?   According to Strong's Concordance, it is 'completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord'.   

Sounds good, doesn't it?   Seems a bit elusive, though, to be honest, especially this Saturday morning. 

Shalom is what God promises us and longs for us to experience, but we live something very different, and often.            

The more I think about it, the more I see the chaos in my own life in all sorts of areas, and the more I can see why the Lord is not wanting me to just talk about it, write about it, theorise about it, but to gradually look at each area of chaos and deal with it.  Ouch!  The physical messes are so much easier to deal with than the relational ones, the ones that go deep, lie deep within my heart and the hearts of others.  That's the chaos that's so much harder to put right, to look at, to deal with or to let God touch.

A certain amount of chaos is to be expected this side of heaven, but we don't have to resign ourselves to the kind of long-term or continual chaos that can turn our homes into a war zone, rather than a place of peace.     

We need to aim for Shalom, found only and always in Him.

Saturdays are my days to get the house into reasonable order, so we can relax on Sundays, and start Mondays fresh.     But, every day we can start afresh with God, waiting on God for His mercy and grace for every need. 

Lamentations 3: 22-24   It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.   They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.   The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.

Even if the start of our day has been chaotic, like mine was, the rest of our day doesn't have to go that way as well.   Sometimes, we just have to stop, re-connect with Him, and start again, even in the middle of the mess, before it gets any messier - not easy to do.    Whether the mess is just from this week of sinfulness or a lifetime, it's time to re-connect with Him and let Him restore Shalom to us, even if it's just a small measure of what He ultimately longs for us to know.  

The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.

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