Chaos
I just received an email from a Noble Subject celebrating the beauty of her family's life.
I had to smile. A year ago, her emails were dripping with pain at the violence with which everything familiar was being ripped apart.
There is a principle here: the price of progress is often chaos.
Think of having a room added on to your house.
You have a lovely ecosystem in place, just a bit small. With three active kids, the two bedrooms and one bath are a bit cramped.
You have the land, the money and the emotional bandwidth to add on, so you get an architect, draw plans and hire a contractor.
As soon as he comes, the comfortable small ecosystem you have been in for a long time becomes hugely uncomfortable as you have to compress even further, there is noise and ugliness everywhere, and you eat sawdust with each meal for months.
And this chaos is inevitable. You cannot build a room addition with silence, order and a perfectly dust-free environment.
Eventually it is all done, everything is cleaned up, and you move into the new bigger ecosystem and celebrate the wonders of your big, comfortable house.
Quickly you forget the chaos.
Many of you have walked the same journey in community.
You were in one or more communities such as family, work or church, that were awkward but long-standing and familiar.
The cost of leaving them would be high and there did not seem to be any option of fixing them.
So last year, God forced the issue, causing the awkward to become so toxic it was not to be endured anymore. You bled and grieved and withdrew from one or more communities or relationships.
Just as the pain was subsiding, the coronavirus disruption hit and your first reaction was, “Oh no! I just can’t handle any more emotional pain and environmental disruption.”
But to your surprise, in the isolation of the virus-mandated season, God finished the ecosystem change that He began last year, and instead of your being more deeply broken, you are mysteriously enlarged and soaring.
In the midst of a global debacle.
With ease.
Because He is the Master Builder, after all.
And He is a pro at causing productive chaos.
And managing it with consummate ease.
And delivering a beautiful new ecosystem for you, in the place of the one He intentionally destroyed because it was too small, and too wrong, and had served its purpose.
So have a magnificent housewarming party for your new “room addition” and lift up a toast to The Master of Productive Chaos.
Copyright by Arthur Burk
August 2020
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Productive Chaos
By : Estelle Geyser On August 19th 2020This story is so similar to mine, it is scary. However, what I initially thought was a 'loss', I now realize it was something that ' ...has served its purpose...'
During this corona-season, I have received more healing and blessing from my Father and King, more tender comfort and care from the Holy Spirit and MUCH MUCH MORE teaching about dominion and the POWER of the BLOOD of Jesus, than during the last 5 years.
SLG, thank you for your commitment to your design...It helped built my new room.
Estelle
Great is Thy Faithfulness!!!
By : Jayne On August 12th 2020What unfathomable... (diligence, love, faithfulness?)... the word I was about to say has been subsumed by the Holy Spirit:
RECTITUDE!
It’s so incredible that God attends so directly and intricately in our individual lives. He creates the renovation process!
Article
By : Ronald Ehlen On August 6th 2020How true GOD will change this chaos world to His kingdom.
the price of progress is often chaos.
By : Pamela Moore On August 5th 2020Hmm. In that place right now and can so relate. We have been remodeling our kitchen and den now for about 9 months. My husband works from home so when things are slow there is progress. I help with what I can such as painting and cleaning up after the latest installment.
We celebrate the wins such as new flooring installed or the ceiling finally smooth and popcorn removed.
I'm grateful that as we have persisted we have grown to be more patient and kind with each other. Yes, there is chaos but every inch we get means we are moving forward in the kingdom. Father is more than able to bring the good from the chaos. Amen.
Your productive chaos article....
By : JE On August 5th 2020Thanks for your insights in your article on chaos, and its seeming benefits down the road, especially
for the believer. I'm on the board at our church, facing some uncomfortable decisions. I don't feel so
badly about those upcoming decisions now knowing that chaos for a time may produce what amounts to
"the peaceful fruit of righteousness."
Thank you!
By : Kirsten Pattengale On August 5th 2020Wow, this is a priceless word picture that brings perspective shift!! Thank you!
Chaos
By : Lu-Ina Jansen van Rensburg On August 5th 2020So true, so true. In the midst of the chaos God brought order to my financial chaos.
Celebrating!
By : Daphne Kwan On August 5th 2020Wow! I so appreciate your analogy Arthur! I used to tell people (myself included), and I use the major-house-cleaning analogy. When it becomes almost a necessity that you need to put the house on re-set, you'll most likely find rotten sauces, forgotten snacks & forgotten stuff in the kitchen; never been worn clothing, no-longer-fit clothing; forgotten tools, repeated tools (3 sets of the same thing), broken & rotten stuff in drawers & tool boxes. And the whole area is in a mess during the process - and you are mad at yourself for wasting all that money on buying way too much stuff & forgotten about them ("Yes, sad face, You did this!"). But the effort (journey) is always worth-it! Yes, I can't recall how many times I have to tell myself this analogy, so I would have the courage to get up again & face the ugly. "The price of progress is often chaos". Thanks again Arthur.
painfully true
By : Cyndi S On August 5th 2020He is so faithful to bring us out into the new, quiet, place, but getting there was excruciating. How is it we forget the pain in the blessing, so quickly? Grace
Re:Chaos
By : Charmine (Chayil) Carpenter On August 4th 2020This message resonates with me very well. Though, I do not like having to go through the tearing down, the demolition, the digging, the ugliness of it all in order to build, I know its all working for the good. Thanks Dr. Burke, May GOD continue to bless you one thousand times more than you already are, in Jesus name.
Chaos
By : Joyce Nicodin On August 4th 2020The Master of Productive Chaos is such a comforting truth. It has to be chaotic to move us out of what is our familiar space. And for God to get us where He needs us to be.
Here’s to the Master!
to life
By : Janis Leal On August 4th 2020Master of Productive Chaos"... unexpectedly pulls an imperceptible string connecting head to heart to... other things inside... and gently but profoundly releases a small wellspring of tears without words... for gratitude... amazement... unimaginable wonder of what's ahead... and a sense of enlargement that may be much more than can be imagined.
He is truly amazing. Thank you for this word. Joining in the toast -- L'chaim! To life....
Thank you
By : Ruth Snell On August 4th 2020I’m always enlarged by your word pictures and insights. Grateful for you. O/
Chaos
By : Jason Blailklock On August 4th 2020A great reminder to trust an unknown future to a known God.