Excerpt
Crushing Chaos
Chapter 1Panic in the LobbyNow the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
—Genesis 1:2
The main emphasis [of creation] is not on a process from nothing to something, from nonexistence to existence, but on a process from confusion to distinction, from chaos to order.
—James Barr, “Was Everything That God Created Really Good?,” emphasis added
Anxiety coiled itself around a young girl while she was standing in our church lobby on a Wednesday night. Minutes before our weekly worship service, she was fighting to breathe and relentlessly wiping tears from her face. I offered up prayers, seemingly in vain. My job was to protect and love these young people, but I felt powerless over the chaos of panic that had engulfed her.
Eventually her wave of anxiety subsided, but I never forgot this moment. I had preached dozens of messages about anxiety and panic. We had devoted prayer and ministry time specifically focusing on anxiety, but clearly, we hadn’t cracked the code on the path to peace. After months of reflecting on this moment, I remembered that the creation account in Genesis has a whole lot to say about Chaos and that it describes the original state of creation as a deep, wild, raging ocean of Chaos. The opening words of the Bible declare:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2)
God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was “formless and empty.” In Hebrew, those terms are tohu and va-vohu, which translate into English as “wasteness . . . that which is wasted, laid waste . . . a desert . . . emptiness, vanity . . . nothing” and “emptiness, voidness,” respectively. Other translations are “place of chaos,” “wilderness,” and “barren.”5 And the Hebrew term tehom (“deep”) can be translated as “abyss.” (We’ll look at these terms in more detail in later chapters.)
Simply put, Scripture’s first words declare that creation was a chaotic, untamed mess and that the Spirit of the Lord God was brooding over the surface of this barren, unintelligible, chaotic ocean abyss. Pretty epic visual, if you ask me. However, God didn’t bring peace to this chaos. God began organizing the creation and moved the earth from chaos into order. God began to separate, pull apart, gather, and bring structure to the chaos of creation. Look at this description in Genesis 1:6–7:
God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it.
What did God do? God separated.
Read this next description in verse 9:
God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”
What did God do? God gathered.
The beginning of creation reveals a God who knows how to rearrange, organize, unclutter, clean, uncomplicate, simplify, and structure life. God’s solution for the Chaos found in Genesis wasn’t to bring peace; it was to establish Order. Ironically, peace is always a natural by-product once Order takes root in the cosmos, and I have discovered that God’s strategy for responding to Chaos hasn’t changed.
Order was the missing key in our ministry approach, as anxiety was simply a result or by-product of chaos. I had spent all my time focused on the check engine light of anxiety instead of popping open the hood and actually checking the engine. Anxiety is just a symptom of the real, undiagnosed chaos living deep within us. I had been preaching about peace, essentially medicating pain and providing temporary quick fixes, instead of addressing the root of the problem. The good news is that there’s a cure for Chaos, and my discovery of that cure is what this book is all about. The cure for Chaos is Order.
There’s an Order to life that’s revealed in the Scriptures.
Take sex for example. The Bible’s vision: Sex goes after marriage, not before. Confusing this sequence will inevitably create chaos.
Unnecessary heartbreak.
Soul ties with multiple individuals.
Insecurity. Possessive behavior.
Children born outside of wedlock.
Baby-mama drama. Child support.
This is absolute chaos.
And it creates abundant opportunities for anxiety to thrive. It doesn’t matter how much we pray for peace—peace will never be permanent in the soul of the person who rejects God’s order.
Our families, churches, and institutions can flourish only when they are well ordered. God’s order for families involves mothers and fathers who are present, engaged, and invested in the flourishing of their children. Mothers and fathers who exercise healthy authority over their children to guide, teach, and protect them. When this order is ignored or rejected, chaos ensues. Allow me to give an example around fatherhood.
According to a 2022 United States Census Bureau report, about one in five children are currently growing up without a father in the home, and the negative results speak for themselves. Removing the father from the head of the home creates chaos within society.
“Research suggests that fatherlessness is a significant contributor to mental health issues in children . . . and 71% of all children who abuse substances come from fatherless homes. . . . Another study found that 75% of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers are from fatherless homes.” In addition, “63% of youth suicides . . . and 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders” come from homes without fathers present. Fatherlessness not only affects mental health but also impacts financial outcomes, educational outcomes, and criminal activity.
Fatherlessness is directly linked to anxiety, depression, suicide, poverty, incarceration, and a host of other challenges. The facts paint a clear picture: When humanity deviates from God’s order, chaos always results. God’s order includes a healthy, present, invested father. A good dad defends his children from the chaos of society. Wherever there’s fatherlessness, there will also be chaos.
My dad was incarcerated for eighteen years and battled a drug addiction for decades. I grew up in a chaotic home, within the wider culture of a chaotic neighborhood, and I bucked against the order of male authority figures my entire teenage life. I hated the idea of order and submitting to my father’s authority because it was so foreign to the way I grew up, but then I realized I’d never actually mature if I didn’t embrace Order and reject Chaos. It didn’t matter how many earnest prayers I offered to God, desperately asking Him for peace; until I embraced His Order, I continued to struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts because my depression was being fueled by the fatherless chaos I was raised in. Depression was simply a symptom of a chaotic life that lacked the foundation, structure, and identity that fathers are designed by God to provide.
Order extends way past sequence and authority. The Bible outlines a rhythm for life. We’re designed to work for six days and rest for one day. Chick-fil-A style. Closed on Sundays. Yahweh commanded the people of Israel in the Old Testament to allow their land to rest every seven years—no crops, no planting, no harvesting. Modern scientists have proven that this practice of allowing the soil to rest has incredible health outcomes for humans and the environment. Genesis teaches that you and I were made from the dirt of the ground, and we also require rest if we’re going to experience optimal fruitfulness. Adam was created from the dirt, which in Hebrew is called adamah. Adam’s name literally means “dirt man.”
Jesus teaches that the seed of God’s Word should be planted in the soil of our hearts (Matthew 13:23). Paul teaches that the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control should be growing from the soil of our very beings (Galatians 5:22–23). The Bible acknowledges that we are soil (Genesis 2:7). We are dirt, not metal. However, in the Chaos of our modern world, we have become machines—cranking out projects and grinding and being productive. Maybe many of us are anxious and living chaotic lives because there’s no rhythm to our work. Both machines and farms produce. But those processes of production look radically different. Embracing Sabbath doesn’t mean that we produce less; it means that we produce differently. Sabbath is a rhythm, and rhythm is a nonnegotiable element of God’s Order.
