When we experience confusion and chaos, it feels to us as if things are falling apart. Rather a lot of things feel chaotic just now. In Colchester we've been in a swirl of activity as we sell the church on Maldon Road. Ann and I moved out of our living room so that it could be converted into a chapel for Colchester New Church. And then the whole congregation put in countless hours, taking apart items that needed to go in the skip, moving the things we were keeping to the manse and sending off others for auction, or to charity shops, and countless other tasks. In the process, the church looked chaotic at times, but we ended with a very tidy and organised space that we handed over to the buyers. Now we are working on settling in at our new worship location, knowing that it is a temporary one that may not be available when Ann and I leave in June.
Similarly, the routine for the church in the UK will be changing. We are facing a time of rapid adjustment, as we begin to see what our future will be like when we move to one resident minister next year, add an administrator and engage in the Global Healthy Churches programme. These are brave new beginnings, but they definitely hold uncertainty and confusion about what to expect in the meanwhile.
Deeper within these stories of change is the emotional turmoil as we say goodbye to our church building of 100 years, and as we consider the changes needed to carry the church into the next twenty years of its existence. That uprooting is never fun, even if there is satisfaction in reorganising. We need order to feel safe and to be able to do the various useful services we are engaged in. Change brings feelings of unsafety and worry.
Why does the Lord allow a world so full of change and upheaval? Here's something He says, 'Before anything is restored to order it is very common for everything to be reduced first of all to a state of confusion resembling chaos so that things that are not compatible may be separated from one another. And once these have been separated the Lord arranges them into order.' (Secrets of Heaven 842.3) I find this passage comforting. We see the chaos and confusion, but often we don't see the ways the Lord is rearranging things into a better order. And to get us there, He needs enough uncertainty and chaos to allow what is incompatible with the new order to be separated out. There is value in this seeming chaos.
Here is another image of His presence in seeming chaos: If we were to see Providence in action 'it would appear to our eyes only as scattered heaps and assembled piles of materials do to passers-by, the materials out of which a house is to be built. But to the Lord it appears as a magnificent palace constantly being built and enlarged.' (Divine Providence 203.2, Secrets of Heaven 6486) What a glorious image of the way the Lord leads us to a life that is so much more beautiful and ordered than anything we can see.
Another passage offers this same idea, but says that our role is to provide the building materials, after which 'the Lord builds the house from foundation to roof exactly adapted to the person, though the person does not know it. From this it follows, that unless a person provides the necessary things for a house, he will have no house and thence no habitation.' (Apocalypse Explained 1154.2) I like that our part involves gathering the raw materials and that gathering leads to a mess — to chaos. Yet unless that happened, the Lord would not be able to create order according to His Divine, loving plan.
These teachings give me hope. They say that even though life seems messy and like it's not going anywhere productive, the Lord can use that chaos to bring new hope in ways we cannot imagine. I know from experience that the plans my mind creates often come to nothing. And I know that the order and structure the Lord creates, when I'm seemingly not looking, are what lasts and they create a beauty and safety that I would never have believed were possible. Maybe chaos isn't so bad as long as we use the uncertainty as an opportunity to turn to the Lord and to ask that His will be done.
Find out more about the teachings of the New Church and how it can relate to real life issues
Come and join us at Michael Church, a spiritually dynamic church in South London