Peace Despite Chaos

Ahh, my friend.

Another difficult blog post to write.

I debated. I really did.

I’ve always said my little niche here is your safe place. Peaceful. Hopeful. Loving. The place where we can chat, share a smile, and part happy as we go on about our day.

I still stand by that.

The thing is, though, when tragedies like the one in Las Vegas rock our world, I believe it’s best to address the elephant in the room and not tiptoe around it. If you received my recent newsletter, you know I touched on this, as well.

Wow.

This is tough, but let’s jump in.

Here.

We’ll hold hands.

For just a few moments we’ll tread water together.

I’ve got you!

Okay. I’ll be brief.

Chaos isn’t comfortable.

It’s surreal and unyielding. It wields fear and doubt.

It shoves us from our comfort zones and makes us question our sanity.

Like many, I heard the news as I awoke Monday morning.

Another mass shooting.

Another one.

I turned up the volume on the television.

Did I really want to hear this?

Did I want to start the day with violence?

That word. The one we struggle with when our minds can’t fathom reality. No.

No, I really didn’t. I didn’t want to hear, see, or feel anything about innocent lives suddenly snuffed out—again—in a matter of moments.

Deep breath.

To hide our heads in the sand and pretend bad doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away.

I stood my ground and listened.

As details emerged, I prayed.

I grieved.

Who could do this?

And why?

The real question I think, now, is what can we do to stop this from happening in the future?

I don’t know the answer to that. I suspect a lot of people will weigh in with solutions.

While there are no easy fixes or workarounds, we do know there’s a sense of unity when horrific events like this happen.

We may walk different paths. Our viewpoints may clash. At the end of the day, however, we still want the same thing.

A sense of normalcy.

A sense of peace despite chaos.

To live in a state of fear is to accept defeat, and more than that, it’s contrary to how God would have us live.

I’ll give you an example.

As a little girl, the darkness terrified me. To this day, it’s still not my favorite thing, but I’ve adjusted. (More thoughts here.)

Often, I’d lie in bed imagining the worst.

Monsters. Gangsters. Ghosts. You name it. I just knew the worst lingered in the shadows.

Sometimes, when my fear bordered on the hysterical, I’d call out to my parents. “Mama… Daddy!”

Bleary-eyed from sleep, or the lack of it, they’d trudge in the bedroom I shared with my sister. Daddy would flip on the bedside lamp. “Look, darlin’, nothing’s here. It was only the dark and dark can’t hurt you.”

And then my parents would remind me…

“…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5 NIV)

Those words comforted me. They still do.

In this crazy, mixed-up world when peace seems distant, and maybe, unlikely, here’s what I remember, too.

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world…” (1 John 4:4 NIV)

Where there’s imperfection, there’s chaos. There always will be.