Embrace Some Chaos

Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert~ Isaiah 43:19 NKJV

I am currently sitting in my office and looking out the window. The view is stunning—nearly perfect, really. It’s currently eighty degrees; the clear, cloudless sky is a truly dazzling shade of blue that seems unique to the state of Arizona. The bare, jagged mountains provide a perfect backdrop for the Palo Verde and Palm trees that sway gently in the breeze. Brightly colored flowers bloom everywhere I look and the birds and butterflies are out in droves, taking advantage of the flawless November day.

 Today is just the sort of day that inspires people to pack up all their belongings and move to the desert. It’s a beautiful, sunny, picture-perfect day; the view out my window looks like a post card.

It makes me sick.

 Those of you who live in cold climates will have a hard time understanding this, but I am done with sunny, picture-perfect days.

I feel as if I’m living in an upside-down crazy-town version of the movie Groundhog Day. The only difference is that in Arizona the sun never stops shining and the sky is always blue. I am more than done. For me the never-ending sunshine is like hearing your favorite song a thousand times in a row. Sometime around the hundredth play, it ceases to be your favorite song. It’s like eating your favorite food every day for a year. At some point, no matter how good the food is, you start to hate it and long for something different.

I want a thunderstorm, some snow, or a little sleet. Heck, I would settle for a couple of dark, ominous-looking clouds to bust up the monotony of our never-ending weather pattern.

Before you write me off as some sort of ridiculous sunshine loathing nut-job, hear me out.  Arizona weather reminds me that anything, even a fantastic thing like sunshine, can turn into a bad thing when it becomes routine. The thing itself may not be bad, but the fact that we are not embracing new experiences is.

Human beings are prone to embracing routine. It seems to be a part of our DNA; we tend to gravitate towards the same stuff all the time. We buy the same stuff at the grocery store, travel to the same places on vacation every year and hang out with the same types of people all the time.

We embrace the humdrum of routine because it feels comfortable and comfortable feels, well, comfortable. Interestingly, the Bible does not use the word routine in any translation that I could find. Maybe this is because God is calling us to embrace new experiences and avoid the temptation of settling into a comfortable routine.

Routine is not necessarily sinful but a strict adherence to routine can limit our opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. We grow by being stressed and stretched, not by settling into a status quo. Routine is, by its very nature, designed to prevent pressure and stress. When we remove pressure, we automatically remove the stimuli that cause us to grow and mature.

The story of Esther illustrates this principle in action. Esther was a compliant young woman who had settled into a comfortable (but not particularly godly) routine after becoming the Queen of Persia. It wasn’t until the pressure and stress of having her people threatened with total annihilation that she found the moral strength to risk everything she had for good of her nation.

This week I want to encourage you to step outside the easy routine of life and do something different. Tackle a book of the Bible you are not familiar with, try a new food, reach out someone who makes you uncomfortable, listen to an opinion that differs from your own.  Schedule an opportunity to volunteer at a local non-profit or take on area of ministry in your Church.

Do something that scares you a little bit.

 And if you’re feeling really brave you could do that thing that you know God has been calling you to do. That thing you’ve been avoiding due to fear of the unknown.

The unknown might be exactly what you need right now to become the person God has called you to be.  

    

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness~ Lamentations 3:21-24