living amidst chaos

chaos. we are constantly surrounded by chaos. it invades our lives; our culture is a chaotic one. whether we are students, athletes, or employees we all have chaotic moments. it may look different for the different people in these groups, but the chaos is undeniable. i myself was a student athlete for four years, two of those years being at vanderbilt and the last two at georgia tech and let me tell you – handling sports and academics at these two places was not easy, it was chaotic. as i’m sure the men and women who are employed face plenty of chaotic moments that impact their days as they are trying meet deadlines and dealing with other individuals.

but how do we bring stillness into this chaos? i know that focusing on the chaos will only bring more of it - amplify it – make it seem almost unbearable. to bring stillness into the chaos we have to focus on the task at hand.

as i was writing this post, i took out my journal and wrote to God as well. sitting outside at a coffee shop, with my wife, on a noisy street.

‘sitting near this busy street, i try to find You. i try to find Your stillness amongst the chaos that surrounds me. with no focus, my thoughts are clouded by the chaos, by the noise, and i miss You. but if i focus on the words that i write my mind becomes still, the noise is slowly drowned out. i feel Your presence upon me, i feel separated from the chaos. as the chaos begins to creep back in i lose my focus on You. i quickly realize that i am listening to the noises of this busy street and i am able to tune back into you. thank you for sweet times like this – among the chaos. that i can still find you, that i am reminded you are here with me – in the chaos.’

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i can get overwhelmed by chaos. it is hard to find stillness, to focus on one thing with a plethora of others waiting to be tended to. but to function as an athlete and as a Christian we must get through this. especially in today’s world.

for athletes, it’s like the moment’s we always imagined as kids. for me as a pitcher my scenario has always been ‘it’s a tie game with bases loaded and a 3-2 count, if i walk this hitter my team loses’. we can all imagine the crowd at a point like this, when the game is on the line, it is chaotic. so, what is the chaotic moment you always imagined? is it you hitting the upper 90 on a free kick to win the game? is it you throwing the game winning touchdown as time expires? no matter what the moment is – we all know that if we focus on the crowd, the noise, the chaos, that the task at hand will elude us. we will become overwhelmed and not execute what we are meant to do. just like writing this on the busy street, if the chaos and the noise of the cars gets to me i lose sight of my task at hand - to write what God is putting on my heart.

as students and employees, we too can almost become frozen, paralyzed, by the chaotic list of to-do’s. whether it’s the studying and the papers that are coming up, or the big meeting you have to prepare for at your job, or heck maybe even the store you work at is crazy busy and you don’t know how you are going to make it through the day.

to make it through the chaos, we have to focus on the task at hand.

there used to be plenty of times throughout college where i would look at all my work, staring me in the face, and it felt impossible to start. i was not wanting to deal with the chaos of studying for my exam, finishing up my homework, and writing a 5-page paper (you may be thinking ‘wow you had a lot of work!’, but i was pretty good at procrastinating). but it wasn’t until i focused on one task at a time, instead of lumping all three together, that i could get to work.

so, what is causing you so much chaos you can barely function? quiet the chaos - focus on the task at hand.

as Christian’s we have two main tasks. the first, to love God above all else. the second, to love your neighbor as yourself. but in the world, we live in, these two essential tasks can get drowned out by the rest of the chaos we have swirling around us. and it is when we are unable to quiet this chaos that we can ultimately forget about the tasks that God has commanded us. then, when the chaos finally dies down, we say to ourselves ‘i need some me time’ and not ‘i need some God time’. because if we do not have a quiet heart rooted in Jesus, among the chaos, the Christian lifestyle will look or feel too chaotic. this is exactly where the Enemy wants us to be – separated from our Heavenly Father because the chaos has become too much.

let the chaos of this world, of your sports, of your academics, of your job drive you towards Jesus. He wants you to find rest in Him, knowing that ‘… I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

verses to bring you peace amidst the chaos

John 16:33

Isaiah 26:3

Matthew 11:28

Philippians 4:12-13

-n0tbychance