Posts Tagged: chaos

“An Ordered Life”

On May 12, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“An Ordered Life”

 “Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.”

(“Dear Lord and Father of Mankind)

The words that always grab me from this hymn are:

“And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.”

That is likely because my life is not very orderly.

For some reason (but does there really need to be a reason?), I felt my mom’s presence very strongly as I sat at my desk, thinking about my day, sipping my coffee, and thinking about the words of “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.”  I don’t know that this was one of her favorite hymns, but I do think that she reflected the aspirations of the song in many ways, as my wife does also.  (And, of course, I know that my Mom liked coffee!  My wife does not.)

My Mom was a very ordered person, even though she had a very old, very small farmhouse.  She worked hard, but still seemed to make time to put things in their proper place.

And yet, Mom never made order into a fetish.  She could be spontaneous and playful.  She was fun to be around.  Same with my wife.

Some of us are, I am afraid, like Dr. Sheldon Cooper on “The Big Bang Theory.”  Sheldon is so ordered that he is rigid.  While it is funny in fiction, it isn’t so funny in reality.  When orderliness becomes rigidity, you set yourself up for misery.  You also spread your misery around to others.

I would like to tell you that I am like my mom and my wife in pursuing order in my life, without order becoming my slave driver.  What I need to tell you is that I am much more like Sheldon Cooper.  Well, in fairness, I am not like Sheldon in his strengths, but I do mirror his weaknesses.  My pendulum tends to swing wildly between the extremes of chaos and compulsive order.  Once in a while, I am very briefly in balance.  However, I recover from balance very rapidly.

My mom, my wife, and the lyrics of this song remind me of a simple, but vital, fact: Order does not have to be obsessive-compulsive.  Order can be good friends with spontaneity and fun.

Of course, the hymn “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” is an aspiration and a prayer, not a statement of fact.  And certainly, I can aspire and pray.

So can you!

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