3-8-2016

Good Morning All!!                 

          1 Corinthians 14:10; “But all things should be done decently and in order.”

    I saw an advertisement on television the other day that stated how everyone likes to have things in order.  It went on to try and convince the viewer the importance of the shelving units with the matching containers that were guaranteed to keep your life in perfect order.  I have to admit that it was a pretty tempting offer.  It was as if by magic, my world would become organized in an orderly fashion but then I walked into my office and looked at reality.  I am not really neat and orderly; I tend more toward controlled chaos and managed mayhem.  I know where stuff is, usually, but the files are more piles and of questionable logic.

    The truly amazing thing is that I am married to the most organized person I have ever known.  She is patient with me but I close the door to my office most of the time and that seems to help.  Every so often she comments on almost seeing a corner of my desk and that with a little more effort; I might actually find both corners at the same time.  But why put everything away when you just have to get it out again?

    I know my orderly organization is not very strong.  Yet I marvel when we look at the order within God’s creation.  The geese are returning along with the eagles.  The equinox is not far off and the northern plains are waking from a winter slumber just like it has since time began.  The length of a day is fixed, the length of a year is fixed and it has been all along.  Even when we read the story of creation we see the product of a God of order. 

    This is part of the reason why sin us such a chaotic, random, mercurial event.  It is the disruption of order.  This is why this sinful world seems to be out of control; it is.  This is partly why such random and chaotic events strike us from out of nowhere.  A car accident that claims a young person’s life; illness or cancer that crops up without warning, are all examples of this chaos.  We can’t follow it; we can’t make sense or logic of it because it has none.  Sin is everything completely out of control.

    This is the feeling that people experience.  They feel out of control.  When I visit with someone who wants to talk about the troubles in their life that is the one similar statement; “my life is out of control, it makes no sense.”  Yet that is exactly what God offers to us through the forgiveness of our sins; he offers us order in the midst of chaos; he offers us mercy in the middle of all mayhem.  His grace gives us order and that order gives us the certainty of faithfulness.  In the order of God’s creation, we see him faithfully providing and sustaining what he created.  In his faithfulness, we know his promise, made yesterday and today, is still there tomorrow.  In the midst of pandemonium, you and I have God’s peace.  Peace that will carry us through all of our struggles.

Father, your order for this world gives me peace.  Knowing that you are in control, even when things seem out of control, anchors my heart in joy for you.  Be with those who are spiraling in chaos and losing hope.  Bring them your healing.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret