Monday, July 18, 2016

Taking Chaos Captive, part 3

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My last two blogs  focused on accepting and embracing the chaos of live.  It is now time to move on adapting to chaos and taking the ideas from previous readings and applying them to daily living.

In light of previous information, the next step is honestly asking yourself which of these strategies work for you?   Free yourself from comparison!  Perhaps only one thing has resonated with you.  Take that one thing and customize.  Your personality will dictate exactly what it will look like in your own life.

For example, there are certain “chores” I prefer not doing, such as cleaning toilets.  I don’t really mind mopping floors or laundry, but toilet cleaning is on the bottom of my list.  Because I know that I generally will avoid unpleasant tasks, I put this one first.  Many of us have heard this before, but hearing it and doing it are totally different!  I find my bathrooms are much cleaner by making this simple adjustment.  This practical task is accomplished more often now that it is on the top of my list. 

Another way I insert my own personality into these ideas is by wearing something I love to do tasks I am avoiding.  There are days I don’t mind grocery shopping and others where I cannot bring myself to get out the door.  On days like this, I wear a favorite pair of earrings or jeans.  I do this because it makes me feel better about myself if I am wearing something special.  This is the reason why men do not understand the fitness clothing industry!  Women are not content to work out in nasty basketball shorts and sweat stained t-shirts with holes.  Why?  Because if we feel good about what we are wearing and how we look, we are more likely to work out harder and longer.  So, if I wear something I love to the grocery store, the job doesn’t seem as bad as it did before! 

These are just a few examples of how my own personality dictates how I use the practical ideas I have given to you.  Only you can decide which ones will work and how they will work.

As we accept that there will be chaos in life, we must remember that God is still moving in and through us.  He is more concerned about His creation (you) than your circumstances (chaos).  Embrace the fact that you cannot do it all and that you need others in your life to help you.  Set healthy boundaries and stick to them.  Benjamin Franklin said, “Resolve to perform what you ought, perform without fail what you resolve.”  Finally, adapt your system and let your personality shine through it.  Give yourself grace and mercy because failure will come. 

I leave you to ponder this topic with the words of a holy God:

Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, “This far you may come and not farther; here is where your proud waves halt?” Job 38:8-11 (NIV)


Here is where the waves halt, and here is where the chaos is taken captive.

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