I found myself wondering why God didn’t give us more advance warning about the chaos that was coming at us. I mean, if only he had, things would be so much better.

My daughter was having a really hard day. She wasn’t in a good mood. I came downstairs while she and my wife were having one of those kitchen conversations that was heading toward a disagreement before escalating into an argument. I caught enough of the back-and-forth to know what the issue was. And I found the swirling chaos around them wanting to snag me as well.

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.

How does it look to let chaos in? It usually begins with unhelpful self-talk. We let toxic thoughts enter in. Then we nurture them by repeating them and living as if they’re true.

Whatever the storm is—it begins outside of you. But it doesn’t want to stay outside. It’s looking to get in. Into your head. Into your heart.

Why do we keep doing what isn’t working?

For me, my exercise in futility started with a faulty assumption. I woke each day expecting everything to go as it should. The storm always caught me off guard. Rather than being ready for it, I was on the defensive. And found myself responding in the typical unhelpful ways.

Chaos comes at our creativity in a unique way. I believe that’s because the enemy, as a consequence of his rebellion against God, forever lost his ability to create. Now, he is an agent of de-creation. And this often involves him throwing chaos at those who co-create with God.

God loves it when we seek after him and his ways.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV)

One of the first casualties when things get chaotic is our creativity. It’s hard to justify the time to create something meaningful in the best of times—but exponentially harder  in an atmosphere of fear and panic. In such moments, it can feel self-indulgent or simply irrelevant.

Before we go further, let’s define what we mean by chaos.

Dictionary.com describes it this way: A state of utter confusion or disorder.

Our globe is being shaken harder and harder by the forces of chaos. As it’s shaken, so are we.

We often blame ourselves for the problems and chaos in life. But what if the problem isn’t primarily you? Sure, we all do dumb things and make mistakes. In that sense, we can sabotage our own life. But if there’s more at play, wouldn’t it be helpful to know what that is?

Chaos is invading every area of life. It is relentless. It is unquenchable. It refuses to be contained. It seeks to devour and destroy. To replace order with disorder like a virus trying to infect everyone and everything. But it doesn’t just appear in big, generic ways.

My all-time favorite movie is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It’s the story of a man who lives more in his head than in reality. He works at Life magazine yet he has no life. Until he’s caught up in an adventure that requires more of him than he thinks possible.

In past readings, I’ve quoted passages from Neil Postman’s prophetic book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Today, I want to share a powerful thought from a later book he wrote titled Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology.

In Huxley’s Brave New World, the drug Soma was used to help people escape or avoid reality. A passage in the novel describes its effect this way: “Swallowing half an hour before closing time, that second dose of soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds.”

More than forty years ago in his prophetic book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman contrasted the opposing futures imagined in the novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. He warned that “an Orwellian world is much easier to recognize, and to oppose, than a Huxleyan future.”

In the last three graduation ceremonies I attended, the school presidents and valedictorians gave empty, forgettable speeches. These were secular school graduations, so I knew God wouldn’t be the foundation of the talks. But what quickly became apparent was how, once God is removed from the narrative, nothing else makes sense.

Nothing causes our internal flame to dampen quicker than when we lose heart. And we live in a world that constantly comes after our hearts. It’s almost impossible to get through a day without hearing more devastating developments—whether at home, work, or on the evening news. But the strikes are also personal. The true story we were born for is being attacked, bent, and warped in ways like never before

One of the best ways to grow your creativity is to stay curious. Because curiosity adds a sense of wonder and awe to how you see yourself and infuses your art with new life. But as you practice curiosity, don’t miss the main thing—being curious about God.