I took this picture this week. I think that anyone who has
done moving, rearranging, downsizing, or just plain cleaning can appreciate. It sums up a simple truth: clearing out chaos often creates new chaos
on the way to new order.
How often do I feel that the chaos of life seems
overwhelming! I work to clean up an area. In the process, I create a new mess.
Then I have to figure out what to do with the new mess. I confess that
sometimes I am so overwhelmed that I throw my hands up in defeat—at least for
the moment. I have to walk away and leave it, sometimes hoping that it will
have rearranged itself in my absence. That has never happened, but I can hope.
Change can feel the same way, even when it is for something
“good,” but especially when it is for something we did not ask for or want. We
would rather that we could find balance or equilibrium. In considering the
latter, Margaret Wheatley checked its definition in the American Heritage Dictionary: “Equilibrium. 1. A condition in which
all acting influences are canceled by others resulting in a stable, balanced,
or unchanging system. 2. Physics. The condition of a system in which the
resultant of all acting forces is zero.”[i] Stable,
balanced, unchanging? The result of all acting forces is zero? She writes, “I
don’t believe it is a desirable state for an organization. Quite the contrary.
I’ve observed the search for organizational equilibrium as a sure path to
institutional death, a road to zero trafficked by fearful people.”[ii]
Too much of life is spent looking for
equilibrium—stability—in the misguided hope that we can stave off something
that is uncomfortable, or distressing. Maybe that is death, or at least loss.
What if instead of trying to protect ourselves from death, or loss, or change,
we take a risk and step out into the adventure that is life with God.
Wheatley would agree. “They don’t sit quietly by as their
energy dissipates. They don’t seek equilibrium. Quite the opposite. To stay
viable, open systems maintain a state of non-equilibrium, keeping themselves
off balance so that the system can change and grow. They participate in an open
exchange with their world, using what is there for their own growth.”[iii]
[i] Wheatley,
Margaret J. (2006-09-01). Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in
a Chaotic World (Kindle Locations 1251-1253). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Kindle Edition.
[ii] Wheatley, (Kindle Locations 1256-1257).
[iii] Wheatley, (Kindle Locations 1283-1286).
Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was
called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he
set out, not knowing where he was going.
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