******
A Quick Technical note…Email subscriptions actually works now, so if you want to get an email whenever new entries are posted, you can register in the email subscription box on the right side of the page
******
I believe in the principle of chaos, not in an anarchical sense, but rather chaos as a principle that the vast majority of elements are beyond our control. I’ve been learning a lot over the past few years about how little I control, and how trying to control things really can strangle the free roaming spaces of a life full of grace and love.
A few years ago prior to a triathlon I was competing in, I had the privilege of hearing Dave Scott, a World Champion Ironman triathlete, a hall of famer, and a legend in his own right, speak to the athletes prior to the race. As a bit of background about Dave Scott, he has won Ironman Hawaii 6 times, and was involved in some of the most ground breaking and exciting races in the history of the sport of triathlon. He is certainly no slouch and he to this day is held with great admiration in the Ultra-endurance community as a pioneer at going fast over long distances.
Dave said something incredibly profound, not just for racing triathlons, but for life. To Paraphrase, Dave said the following:
“It’s a hard course out there, don’t let the big challenge distract you. Take each tough moment in stride, and overcome the little challenges that present themselves, one at a time. On race day, you can only worry about what you control…weather, wind, technical malfunction are all out of your hands. Focus on your pace, focus on your nutrition, and enjoy the ride.”
If you agree with my principle of chaos, and Dave’s principle on tactically executing on “Race Day” (life), I think there are some major implications on how life looks thriving in chaos. When we learn to adapt, move in tandem with that which is beyond our sphere of immediate control we become great improvisers and we learn to move in flow, step for step with the things in life that don’t go according to plan (or at least according to our plans). What can we really control?...many people would say life is 20% what happens to you, and 80% how you respond to what happens. In reality, we can only really control our response, the choices (Dieting Choices), we make. Often what happens to us doesn’t align neatly with our plans, and in those moments we have the ability to make decisions on how we respond.
Last week I commented on a few things regarding plans, but that discussion was primarily a setup for communicating a proper balance between plans & a willingness to change the plan. As I stated, there is great danger in being so preoccupied in both the plan and the goal of the plan that we miss out on enjoying the ride (Planning & Improvising Part I). I’ve fallen victim to this trap many times, but I’ve learned from it, and found that when we live by our own agendas we miss a great deal of joy, and some amazing adventures.
Improvising, is creating room for chaos into the equation of our plans, the result is a balance between our future and present tense, leaving us adequately focused yet appropriately detached from our personally defined objectives. Improvising takes those elements that are beyond our control, welcomes them, and responds to them open heartedly.
When you look at the life of Jesus, he took lots of pit stops and detours, he moved in flow to the circumstances that were around him. He allowed room to deviate from his plans, he had an intimate connection with immediate circumstances as they arrived, and acknowledged their potential to have eternal significance. If you have ever had the experience of having someone who is preoccupied in some activity drop what they are busy with to give you or someone attention, those moments stand out. Whether that be a parent putting down the newspaper to play with their kids, a pedestrian stopping to aid the homeless, a motorist pulling over to help out a fellow traveler…this is improvising, and these are important detours. Improvising in this regard is the act of taking our plans, and making them a lesser priority to immediate circumstance, things beyond our control, the beautiful chaos that is a life filled and lead by God’s spirit.
When we improvise we let go of the time, goals, and objectives we so inappropriately define as our own. To improvise is to embrace that maybe, just maybe, God has other things in mind for our days, weeks, months, and years. Chaos as we see it, is calculated and carefully planned by a master architect and is an important way that he intercedes into the daily workings of our lives. How often do we feel that the circumstances of this world are so wildly out of control that they break any hopes that we may be able to “control” what’s happening around us? Its these moments that tend to loosen our grip on the agenda, and tighten our grip to God…sometimes, we’re just hanging on for dear life
Chaos from a human perspective (chaos without God), is the absence of order. Chaos with God, is coming to grips with the fact that God defines “order”, not us. Control is a false belief, it is a system of comfort that we have made to convince ourselves that life without God is not only plausible but that we on our own are in fact capable of handling things on our own, independent of Him. Improvising is welcoming God at all costs, at all times, it is welcoming chaos to our “plans”, and making room for his Plan.
So where is the balance? We of course mustn’t sit idly by pursuing and living lives lacking direction or activity. Conversely we also should not be so preoccupied with doing things and going places, that we become possessive of our own “plans”. Balance is the willingness to set our direction aside, to accept the pit stops and detours as they are introduced to our lives, it is to adjust our trajectory to match Christ’s. This is life in tune to the Spirit. It is fluid, it changes, it takes having our eyes on God, our hearts open to his people and his work, and a proper posture, subordinated, to the hand of the almighty.
In the end, we open the door to chaos, but we do so trusting that the chaos we see is carefully crafted in by the parameters of God’s goodness and sovereignty. Ultimately we find ourselves trying less to understand what God is doing and trying to fit his plans to ours, and rather we end up fitting our plans to his, trusting that whatever chaos may come, that it’s a part of an infinitely complex, perfect, and beautiful plan.
One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” is when Mr. Tumnus and Lucy are watching Aslan (the symbolic lion figure of God) walk away, Mr. Tumnus States clearly “He is not a tame a tame lion.”…Lucy’s response, “No…but he is good”
God cannot be tamed to our plans, he is wild, and reckless in the lengths he goes through to make himself known to this broken humanity. His wildness can mean a bit of chaos for us, but with that wildness comes a taste of his vast and unsearchable goodness. In those moments of deep uncertainty, total chaos, we are given the opportunity to connect with and trust a wildly loving God, and we are given a choice…do we adhere to our silly and eternally devoid plans? or will we put our plans aside, embrace chaos, taste the sweet flavors of a loving god, and see the wild passion of a loving savior?
A Quick Technical note…Email subscriptions actually works now, so if you want to get an email whenever new entries are posted, you can register in the email subscription box on the right side of the page
******
I believe in the principle of chaos, not in an anarchical sense, but rather chaos as a principle that the vast majority of elements are beyond our control. I’ve been learning a lot over the past few years about how little I control, and how trying to control things really can strangle the free roaming spaces of a life full of grace and love.
A few years ago prior to a triathlon I was competing in, I had the privilege of hearing Dave Scott, a World Champion Ironman triathlete, a hall of famer, and a legend in his own right, speak to the athletes prior to the race. As a bit of background about Dave Scott, he has won Ironman Hawaii 6 times, and was involved in some of the most ground breaking and exciting races in the history of the sport of triathlon. He is certainly no slouch and he to this day is held with great admiration in the Ultra-endurance community as a pioneer at going fast over long distances.
Dave said something incredibly profound, not just for racing triathlons, but for life. To Paraphrase, Dave said the following:
“It’s a hard course out there, don’t let the big challenge distract you. Take each tough moment in stride, and overcome the little challenges that present themselves, one at a time. On race day, you can only worry about what you control…weather, wind, technical malfunction are all out of your hands. Focus on your pace, focus on your nutrition, and enjoy the ride.”
If you agree with my principle of chaos, and Dave’s principle on tactically executing on “Race Day” (life), I think there are some major implications on how life looks thriving in chaos. When we learn to adapt, move in tandem with that which is beyond our sphere of immediate control we become great improvisers and we learn to move in flow, step for step with the things in life that don’t go according to plan (or at least according to our plans). What can we really control?...many people would say life is 20% what happens to you, and 80% how you respond to what happens. In reality, we can only really control our response, the choices (Dieting Choices), we make. Often what happens to us doesn’t align neatly with our plans, and in those moments we have the ability to make decisions on how we respond.
Last week I commented on a few things regarding plans, but that discussion was primarily a setup for communicating a proper balance between plans & a willingness to change the plan. As I stated, there is great danger in being so preoccupied in both the plan and the goal of the plan that we miss out on enjoying the ride (Planning & Improvising Part I). I’ve fallen victim to this trap many times, but I’ve learned from it, and found that when we live by our own agendas we miss a great deal of joy, and some amazing adventures.
Improvising, is creating room for chaos into the equation of our plans, the result is a balance between our future and present tense, leaving us adequately focused yet appropriately detached from our personally defined objectives. Improvising takes those elements that are beyond our control, welcomes them, and responds to them open heartedly.
When you look at the life of Jesus, he took lots of pit stops and detours, he moved in flow to the circumstances that were around him. He allowed room to deviate from his plans, he had an intimate connection with immediate circumstances as they arrived, and acknowledged their potential to have eternal significance. If you have ever had the experience of having someone who is preoccupied in some activity drop what they are busy with to give you or someone attention, those moments stand out. Whether that be a parent putting down the newspaper to play with their kids, a pedestrian stopping to aid the homeless, a motorist pulling over to help out a fellow traveler…this is improvising, and these are important detours. Improvising in this regard is the act of taking our plans, and making them a lesser priority to immediate circumstance, things beyond our control, the beautiful chaos that is a life filled and lead by God’s spirit.
When we improvise we let go of the time, goals, and objectives we so inappropriately define as our own. To improvise is to embrace that maybe, just maybe, God has other things in mind for our days, weeks, months, and years. Chaos as we see it, is calculated and carefully planned by a master architect and is an important way that he intercedes into the daily workings of our lives. How often do we feel that the circumstances of this world are so wildly out of control that they break any hopes that we may be able to “control” what’s happening around us? Its these moments that tend to loosen our grip on the agenda, and tighten our grip to God…sometimes, we’re just hanging on for dear life
Chaos from a human perspective (chaos without God), is the absence of order. Chaos with God, is coming to grips with the fact that God defines “order”, not us. Control is a false belief, it is a system of comfort that we have made to convince ourselves that life without God is not only plausible but that we on our own are in fact capable of handling things on our own, independent of Him. Improvising is welcoming God at all costs, at all times, it is welcoming chaos to our “plans”, and making room for his Plan.
So where is the balance? We of course mustn’t sit idly by pursuing and living lives lacking direction or activity. Conversely we also should not be so preoccupied with doing things and going places, that we become possessive of our own “plans”. Balance is the willingness to set our direction aside, to accept the pit stops and detours as they are introduced to our lives, it is to adjust our trajectory to match Christ’s. This is life in tune to the Spirit. It is fluid, it changes, it takes having our eyes on God, our hearts open to his people and his work, and a proper posture, subordinated, to the hand of the almighty.
In the end, we open the door to chaos, but we do so trusting that the chaos we see is carefully crafted in by the parameters of God’s goodness and sovereignty. Ultimately we find ourselves trying less to understand what God is doing and trying to fit his plans to ours, and rather we end up fitting our plans to his, trusting that whatever chaos may come, that it’s a part of an infinitely complex, perfect, and beautiful plan.
One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” is when Mr. Tumnus and Lucy are watching Aslan (the symbolic lion figure of God) walk away, Mr. Tumnus States clearly “He is not a tame a tame lion.”…Lucy’s response, “No…but he is good”
God cannot be tamed to our plans, he is wild, and reckless in the lengths he goes through to make himself known to this broken humanity. His wildness can mean a bit of chaos for us, but with that wildness comes a taste of his vast and unsearchable goodness. In those moments of deep uncertainty, total chaos, we are given the opportunity to connect with and trust a wildly loving God, and we are given a choice…do we adhere to our silly and eternally devoid plans? or will we put our plans aside, embrace chaos, taste the sweet flavors of a loving god, and see the wild passion of a loving savior?
Embracing the Chaos,
CP
No comments:
Post a Comment