A Car Wash with Your Windows Down

A while back, my wife pointed out something no one wants to hear. She was incredibly kind, but her words packed a punch. “Allen, you’re fine when things are calm. But you don’t do so well when chaos hits.”

Ouch.

I wanted to challenge her observation. But I knew she was right. The pattern was familiar to us both. Chaos would start with an external event. Someone was running late. Something broke down. Somebody was angry. Whatever the outside storm was, it came out of nowhere and was intense.

Like rolling down my window in a car wash, I would let the storm inside of me. Who would do that on purpose? The spraying water, the colored foam, the squirting liquids were never meant to get inside your vehicle or on you. Imagine the damage all that would do to your clothes, your hair, your eyes, the electronics and upholstery.

You go through a car wash. But you don’t let the car wash into your car.

When we let chaos in, the only thing we can create . . . is more chaos. With God, we can enter the chaos without letting the chaos enter us. It’s freeing to realize that chaos comes at us, but it is not us. It’s an external force trying to get in—and we have the power to deny entry. We can roll up the window.

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