Good morning…
“Transitions are messy. Transitions are chaotic. Transitions are where our hard-won order breaks down into disorder,” admits Margaret Silf in The Other Side of Chaos: Breaking Through When Life is Breaking Down (p. 43).
The Bible tells us that all of creation was born from chaotic disorder. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters (Genesis 1:2, NLT).
Margaret writes: “I read these accounts and then I look inside myself, especially when I am in the midst of flux and change, and what do I see?
* Formlessness: I can’t get a handle on anything; nothing has its old shape anymore.
* Emptiness: I feel lost and lonely, with all my old reference points gone.
* Darkness: I’m in the fog of bewilderment, where there appear to be no signposts.
* Depth: Depth may well hold treasure, but right now it just feels really scary.
* Tossing and churning: I wonder what to do, how to get a hold on a new situation” (p. 45-46).
She continues: “What was true for the beginnings of our universe might also hold good for the beginnings of every new stage in any one life. The message is really very simple: chaos is not bad news, a mess that we have to bring back into the right kind of order, the order that existed before we messed it up. On the contrary, chaos is a sacred reality, the very thing that is needed for a new creation to begin. Chaos is a gift, overflowing with potential” (p. 47).
After we read these words aloud in class, one wise woman broke our collective, sacred silence, “Maybe we are to hug our mess rather than trying to hide it.”
And God hugs us as we hug our mess.
…Sue…
