Shalom when Life Hits the Fan

Tempers flare, accusations fly, things felt are not said, other things that shouldn't be said are said.    We avoid this kind of chaos, but sometimes the chaos has to hit the fan.  Sometimes the chaos is stuffed down just once too often and it all comes flying out, like stew out of a pressure cooker. 

Things are falling apart, but are they?  Perhaps they're just falling, falling into place.   Perhaps it's that God is answering my prayers in a roundabout way, allowing things to come to the surface so that they can be seen, recognised, repented of and we can all move forward. 

Isn't that what we all want?  To move forward, to move beyond our present strongholds?   But often it takes some kind of crisis or confrontation or chaos for that to happen.  And we avoid that.   Sometimes God allows our chaos to become so huge we can no longer avoid them.  

Can we see what God is doing in the middle of our mess?    Is God breaking something so He can remake it?   Breaking, sorting, exposing - it's all messy and painful.    We want peace, Shalom, but often we keep some kind of false peace and think it's Shalom.  We avoid chaos, we avoid mess, we avoid the pain, but we want change.   I suspect we can't have one without the other.  

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:                                    a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

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