For many of us, chaos is not a theory; it’s the way we live. I was talking with a colleague a few weeks ago and the subject of “chaos theory” was broached. Reflecting on the conversation it occurred to me that I live in a time when chaos is not theory but fact.

In a Harper’s magazine article entitled An American Yearning, Peter Marin wrote that “one cannot underestimate the ways in which (freedom) contributes to the disorder around us and the angst among us. Freedom, unfortunately invites into being in the world, not only sweetness and light, but every excess, idiosyncrasy, mania, phobia, passion, appetite, sin, peculiarity and grotesque imagining that inhabits the psyche.” He too, goes on to make the observation that chaos is not theory, but our way of life.

And how are we to respond? Marin says: “The most important task ahead of us may not be somehow to impose an order on this chaos, but to learn how to live with it - to live in the absence of order and also in the endless presence of differing others who use freedom in ways that frighten, enrage or disgust us.”

People of faith are prone to forget that God created out of chaos and is always at work amidst chaos to bring life - life that comes not after chaos has been calmed, but right in the middle of it. Herman Melville characterizes God like this: always creating in and through the chaos and storms we are in, not after the storm is gone.

All three synoptic gospels contain the story of Jesus stilling the storm. I like Matthew’s telling best (8:18-27) as he sets the stage in preceding verses. To one would-be follower Jesus says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another would-be follower proclaims he must first bury his father. In the chaos of feeling homeless, exiled, without a place to call our own; or in the chaos of losing a loved one, we, like Peter in the boat may cry out; “Jesus, do something!” The response is clear. Jesus said, “Peace, be still.” We understand that with those words the storm died out. I have often wondered, in the imagery of the story, was it the storm that needed talking to or Peter? My experience has been that God speaks to souls in the storm, not the storm itself. The presence of God in life does not take us away from any of life’s experiences. In the storms of life’s journey, the God who is present proclaims, “Peace, be still. Wherever you go I will go. I will be with you.” And that presence makes all the difference as we live the questions; as we live through change; as we live through chaos by living in Christ.

Rev. Dr. Donald P. Olsen
Associate Executive Secretary