From Chaos to Order!

The story of my life really.
From Chaos to order.

So many times in my life God has taken me as I am, a chaotic mess of emotions and feelings and brought me into a place of order.
Now as I am a slow learner, this seems to be a pattern in my life. I would love to say that God will sort me out and I am good from then on, but I tend to slip into old thinking patterns and I start to let the lies of the enemy invade my thoughts time and again! It is a constant battle and one I don’t think I will win until I am home with God.

My shoes are like this too!
I love shoes. But not like most girls who love sparkly, high heeled beauties. Nope, I am more of a Nike, Converse, coloured sneaker kind of girl. I live in jeans and t-shirts (I will leave those confessions to another day!) and so coloured sneakers are the perfect fit for me.

So over my many trips to America, and thanks to the wonderful world of internet shopping (seriously, what is better than shopping in your jammies!) I have accumulated (quite) a few pairs of shoes, I know, I know, there are worse problems a girl could have! In our old house, I had a great system for my shoes with having a large wardrobe, but our new house doesn’t allow me that luxury. So after a couple of months at our new place, my shoes were a mess! Some were on the floor, some were on the shelves, and some were in a big basket which I had to empty every time I wanted to find a certain pair of shoes!

It was messy people, and it was driving me nuts!

And so I jumped online and bought myself some shoe boxes. I hate to admit how excited I was when they arrived…..it was like Christmas had come early (now I know you are wondering, its only 297 sleeps away!) I spent the afternoon making up these little plastic boxes and then started packing my shoes!

Oh, the joy. The beauty. The order that these wee boxes bought to my wardrobe and my shoe collection! They turned my chaotic mess of shoes into a thing of order and beauty, and I was one happy chicken!

Even though it took me months to sort it out, once I made the decision it was easy, simple and didn’t take long.

Isn’t our walk with Jesus just like this? We know something is a mess and we know we should do something about it, but we procrastinate and put it off. And when we finally decide to do something about it, it is simple and easy (well, most of the time!) and we look back and go “Man, I should have done that months ago”

1 Corinthians 33 reads:

“God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the congregations of The Lords people.”

God doesn’t want chaos in our minds to mess us up. He doesn’t want disorder as that’s when the enemy comes in to distort our reality. No, God is a God of order and a God of peace. He wants us to find rest and peace in Him and lose the chaos.

As I continue on this journey of Lent, I am reminded again that God is in the middle. In my messy middle. To get my shoes sorted, things got messier before they got better. There was a huge mess in the middle of my floor before they were all put into boxes. Same could be said of my life. Sometimes it is darkest just before the sun rises and I am learning to keep walking knowing Jesus is with me. Carrying me on the days I don’t have the strength to walk and encouraging me to turn my chaos into His beautiful order.

So whether it’s shoes or my mind, I feel so much better, and so much more at peace when I have order.

What is it for you?
Where do you need order this week?
Where does God want to replace your chaos with His beautiful order?