Chaos

God is not a God of disorder but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33).

One of the great lies of our time is that chaos and brokenness can sometimes yield positive results. Let me give you a couple examples of what I mean.

It is said that even a broken clock is right twice each day. In other words, wrong opinions and unethical behavior can be good and right in rare situations. For instance, stealing might be wrong in most cases, but there might be times when stealing is the right thing to do. This argument is used to justify looting after a major disaster, or to approve the work of espionage agents in the service of counterintelligence.

Or consider this bit of human wisdom: it is said that if you fill a room with monkeys banging away at typewriters, sooner or later they will, by random chance, duplicate the works of Shakespeare. In other words, with sufficient time anything can happen, no matter how unlikely. This argument is the backbone for evolutionary theory—given enough time, complex life can arise from primal chaos. It’s all a matter of blind chance.

What are these foolish ideas appealing? I think it’s because each of us is broken and floundering in chaos. We like the idea that sooner or later, a clock which is broken can still be right; since we are damaged goods, we would like to think that in the right situation our brokenness can have value. We like the idea that good things can arise from chaos; since our lives are usually a mess, it is comforting to dream that something good can result despite our being confused and disorganized most of the time.

Sadly, chaos and brokenness do not result in good things happening. Brokenness and chaos are the result of sin, mankind’s rebellion against the God who desires order and perfection in all things. Brokenness and chaos fill our lives with stress and fear, unhappiness and pain. Thankfully, our great and wonderful God did not want us to suffer by living in a junkyard of our own creation. So He sent Jesus to restore order and repair what is broken. Thanks to His work, which was finished on the cross, we don’t have to accept brokenness as our nature, we don’t have to accept chaos as inevitable in our lives. Christ offers us a different kind of existence—wholeness in ourselves, and a valued place in His family.