The World Enjoys its Chaos…
As I was
sitting eating lunch one day recently, I had this thought as I listened to the
screams of a police car driving down a street near my house. “The world sure
seems to enjoy its chaos.”
I’m not sure
where that thought came from. (Perhaps the green shade in my avocado… I’m not
sure.) But the more I thought about it, the more real this thought became. I
began to think of other related questions such as:
- Does the world even truly enjoy its chaos?
- Why would the world enjoy its chaos?
- Does the world want to be put back together?
- How can I fix this mess?
- Is there even a way to fix this?
- If there was, how could I do it?
- Do we have any more Nutella?
Along with
several other thoughts that where mainly the same.
In this chaotic
world, there are so many messed up things. It’s hard not to look out the window
and see something messed up that is happening. It’s everywhere in the news, all
over the internet (which I guess is news…) in the books that we read and has
become the talk around the dinner table. The world is messed up, and that’s a
hard fact to escape. As a member of the
human race, I would say that yes. We do enjoy our chaos. With a side of insanity.
I mean, we
enjoy watching movies that involve chaos. We enjoy listening to music that in
some way involves chaos (and sometimes sounds like chaos…) Its fun for us, wouldn’t
you agree??
If you think
about it, the things that we watch are things that have a supervillian
destroying a city, a problem that can only be faced in one way (And usually by only
the main character) and just things that are messed up. We watch these shows
with anticipation, waiting to see how this will be put back together.
You see, in
my English class, we talk so often about the point of view of the author. The
point of view of the author usually affects the point of view of the people
that read that artists work. For example, the people who read my blog are usually
(I’m assuming) Christians or have been in close contact with Christians, because
I’m a Christian and because my point of view reflects what I think, and in turn
what kind of content I produce.
My point of view
connects with a vast majority of my audience, because that’s just the way
people’s brains work. You enjoy being around people who think the same way or
similarly to the way that you do.
In the
movies that we watch, the characters seek to “clean up” the proverbial mess.
They want to make it all better by the end of the movie. And when the
storytellers do that in a way that connects with the audience, that’s when you
have block buster films.
Deep in all
of our hearts, we want the world to be a place of peace.
We long for
peace.
That is what
makes me think that we do want our chaotic world to become peaceful. We long
for rest deep in our souls.
As much as I
like to think that I’m a superhero, I’m really not. I’m just a human who messes
up and does stupid things.
The only
real hero that can save us and give us rest is Jesus.
In the book
of Isaiah, God speaks this over his people:
“Here is
a place of rest; let the tired people come here and rest. This is the place of
peace.” (Isaiah 28:12)
The place of
peace that we long for so deeply is within our reach. In this verse God says, “Here
is a place of rest.” It doesn’t imply that he is holding it out like a carrot
for a donkey. It implies that he is calling for us to come saying, “My child,
here I am. Take my hand, and come to this place of rest.”
It implies
that he longs for us to remember him and come to our Heavenly Father.
The insanity
that this world seems to love is so tiring and heart breaking at times.
But we can
have hope. Hope that reaches beyond the craziness of everyday life and can and
will overflow into every area of our lives.
Now I don’t
know if I can save the world. I don’t actually think it’s possible for me to do
that. But I do know that in this world that seems to enjoy its chaos so much,
we can have peace. Peace that can only come from one place—Jesus and that he
has, in fact, overcome the world.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In
this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the
world.” ~John 16:33
Rachel Joy