Have you
ever felt out of control? “Of course,” you may say. “Everyone feels out of
control sometimes and I am no exception.”
Today, being
out of control or perhaps, experiencing things
being beyond our control is common. News events from around the world, the
sports schedules of our children, favorite restaurants and meeting places
closing unexpectedly, the next four years in our country are beyond our
control.
About all of
this, we can claim, “It’s chaotic!” We fear and abhor chaos and avoid it as
much as possible. In our western, logical way of thinking, we believe that if
we exert enough control, the chaos will go away. But it doesn’t. Chaos is a
non-negotiable part of our times.
Indeed, it’s
been part of our world from the beginning. Consider Genesis 1.1. “When God
created the heavens and the earth, the
earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a
wind from God swept over the water…” Out of this formless void, this darkness,
this seemingly lifeless place, God drew forth life. Out of chaos, life.
Once God created the universe, God did not control it with rigidity and totally unalterable predictability. Our God, even today, does not so control our world and our lives that there can be no exceptions, variations, subtleties, nuances and newness.
Today one of
the newest understandings in science is called chaos theory. In essence, chaos
theory says that small fluctuations lead to large scale transformations. In
human life, small fluctuations here/now, lead to large scale transformations
then/there. You and I can become other than we are at this moment by setting
into motion the small changes that can take us to a new place – either to a better
self, a better community, a better world, or to a place of destruction,
darkness and despair.
The small
changes we make are important when we make them, not out of a sense of
controlling the future, but out of a sense of creativity. Jesus knew about control,
chaos and creativity, although certainly not in those words. He knew he was not
in control of his life, his call, his destiny. All of this belonged to His
Father. “I have come to do the will of the one who sent me. (John 5.30)”
Jesus
couldn’t control the way people responded to Him or rejected Him. He couldn’t
control Judas or the rich young man who walked away or the nine lepers who
didn’t come back to say “thank you.”
Things did
not go Jesus’ way, but this lack of control didn’t stop him from being faithful
to the end. His Father raised Him up from death – death, that ultimate lack of
control. Jesus, our Brother and Lord, passed through chaos to a creative
present. He lives with us now as our constant companion as we try to live in
faith and hope and meet life’s uncertainties with a creative spirit.
Our God
calls us, as our God called Jesus, to pay attention to the tiny insignificant
things that may well play a major role in shaping our life and world – our own
mustard seeds, our own leaven or the tiny supply of oil and flour that sustains
us. When in these days of national change, we recognize that absolute control
is not ours, we welcome the possibilities that chaos may be hiding, and we do
what believers in God have always done, we go forward together.
~ Sister
Joan Sobala
