Perspective: Tangled Wires
There’s a tangle of tech wires under the desk in my family room. It’s really a screaming eyesore. Well, it is to me anyways.
It’s chaos.
And it prolly bothers me because it reminds me of parts of my life that aren’t as smooth sailing and well-ordered as I’d like.
And as many times as I look at it, my eye that always looks for things artistic and orderly … sees chaos personified and a sprawling mess.
As many times as I re-arrange those wires and make them tidy, they appear within a day or two, to be just as disorderly and chaotic as they were a few days earlier.
There are other people in my house who don’t have the same type of uptight concern for orderly wires and pleasant aesthetics (and that’s probably actually okay!).
And yes, it’s a first world problem. I’m thankful for the wires. They mean we have some technical devices and electricity in our house.
And I do need to get over the craving that I have for tidiness, for sure.
But it’s funny how God chooses to speak clearly through the most normal and mundane things … even the things we dislike. Like clutter and chaos. And trying situations – and people.
I’m also realizing, it all depends on how you look at these things.
(Sort of a loose definition of perspective.)
It’s something God’s been talking to me about lately.
One morning a while back He was saying to me that I can’t afford to be double-minded in my life,
that I need to ask for His wisdom and then go with what He says! The scripture verse in James came to mind, that a double-minded man is unstable, and will not receive what he prays for. (James 1:5-8 NIV).
Feels a little harsh, maybe?
I said, “Well, Lord, you know that I believe in you, so I’m not really double minded, am I? What exactly do You mean?”
His gentle reply was, “It’s pretty logical actually Jenn, anytime you change your perspective on something (because you aren’t sure which way is best, or which idea is true..), you’ve got two foundational thoughts going on. You then have to choose, what are you going to build on – this thought or that thought?”
I mulled that over, and considered a light-hearted argument with God.
The kind of argument where I try to validate my way (consider: my finite logic and reasoning, vs His infinite wisdom…), and how much I need to have two trains of thought going on while I’m sorting through life’s events and the excessive brain baggage that I seem to carry…
because you know, I have to solve all of the world’s problems, reconcile daily chaos; and that requires deep thinking with several lines of logic all running at the same time, so I can find the perfect solution …. (ok, maybe I’m exaggerating here)….
Truth is, my thoughts are sometimes dead end, negative, with an underdog kinda undertone going on (and I rationalize that I am ‘just being realistic’).
But God has this way of always leading me to a better, higher quality kind of thought than what I can come up with by myself.
His thoughts sound like His Words do … they are true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable, His thoughts are excellent and praiseworthy…(check out Philippians 4:8, Isaiah 55:8-9). His solutions bring foundational peace (James 3:17).
So I look at the tangle of cords on my floor. I give Him space to speak.
(As if He needs my permission to speak. He’s God!)
But I realize that unless I’m actively listening, I can miss what He’s saying. So I wait for Him to continue with His thoughts toward me. I listen. I lean in.
The crazy chaotic network of tangled cords that cause me so much grief, looks a lot like my life.
At any point I choose, I can look up and away from the tangled spaghetti of life, and I can focus on something else.
Or Someone else. King David mentioned that he would ‘lift up his eyes and look to the mountains….” because that’s where his help came from – the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121)
Well, how on earth does that apply in my family room, where I don’t have any mountains to look at for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers? It occurs to me that it has more to do with the shift in focus than actual mountains.
Right?! Does this happen to other people or just me? I get focusing on one thing that particularly drives me up the wall. I can fixate for a bit on that one thing that can frustrate me like crazy, because you’d think it would be an easy fix:
Clean it up! Make it stay that way!
Use your self will.
Try harder.
Except there are other people who live in my house. I love them. But we don’t see the crazy cords the same way. (I have to mention though, my son is extremely sympathetic to me … he may need prayer for my tech-cord-chaos-disorder, hope he didn’t inherit that!)
So the people and circumstances around me aren’t really helping me keep my world perfect.
But I can try to fix things, and it can just as easily lapse back into chaos. News flash: the fact is, *I* can’t even keep my world perfect, even when no one else is involved. And there’s a solution?
So, get to the point Jenn. What exactly is God saying?
(I’m glad you’re asking that)
When I listen and actually decide that I want to hear God’s thoughts and not just my own thoughts, when I shift my gaze slightly, and say, “God, help me see what you see”, I have the potential to experience something altogether different in the chaos.
There’s something about lifting your eyes off of the close range situation, and setting your gaze on the helpful mountain of God’s goodness and faithfulness – His ability to break through in any and every moment that you invite Him in, so that He can shift your heart back into peace –
Even though the chaos of life hasn’t been solved yet.
Far from solved.
When His hope breaks through:
He lets me know I’m seen, and understood.
And that I matter to Him.
And that the chaos in my life actually moves Him with compassion. He literally wants to lift me and carry my heart. And He actually does.
And that when I am distressed, He (God), actually feels it with me. (Isaiah 63:9-10 NIV) “in their distress He too was distressed, and the angel of His Presence saved them, He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
I looked at those cords again.
I suddenly saw my initials amongst the loops of cords, in cursive writing:
JC
I didn’t see it at first.
I didn’t see my initials in the chaos until I was staring at the cords saying “God You must have a better way for me in my life, that instead of kicking against the things I can’t change, maybe I can hear what You’re saying to me? Speak Lord, Your servant is listening.”
[Evidently He took that as, “Your servant is looking as well as listening.” Haha!]
Check out the picture at the top of this post. Of course someone in the house accidentally kicked the wires before I got the chance to snap the perfect picture … totally symbolic of the lack of perfection in life, isn’t it?!
But there it was. My initials. God saying “I see you JC, in the middle of your life chaos. You’re seen. You matter. Not a detail in your life Jenn, escapes My view. You are on My radar – and I have your solutions and your victories already worked out.
I have peace for your heart right in the middle of the loopy stuff going on.
Trust Me”
I also remember that Jesus and I share the initials “JC”. I looked at the tangled cords again.
Another moment of Hope breaking through.
There’s Jesus Christ, in the middle of my loopy chaos.
Being my Friend.
So near.
He’s sooo part of my everyday normal that I forget He’s the fourth man in the middle of my fire. I discover like the 3 Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace (in Daniel chapter three), that He is with me, walking through the chaos and proverbial fire.
There’s God, again, breaking into my uptight little world, and bringing peace and release to my tense little heart.
There’s enough chaos in the world around me. I don’t need to let it inside my heart.
And I am reminded that Jesus walks on water during crazy storms. And He invites those who trust Him to do the same.
Peter walked on the water with Jesus in the middle of a traumatic moment of chaos and fear. In Matthew’s gospel chapter14, verses 27-29 Jesus spoke courage into the disciples’ unsettled heart.
Peter, impetuous like many of us, asked for a sort of proof that it was really Jesus with him in the middle of the storm. Here’s what he did. He asked Jesus that if it was really Him and not a ghost, would He ask Peter to walk out to Him on the water. And of course Jesus said, “Come.”
Jesus always beckons us to join Him in the middle of our troubles, to take His hand and walk to where we’ve never walked before.
Jesus had a solution and a victory for Peter in the middle of His trauma and doubt. Peter took Jesus’ hand and got past his self-security and the world he thought he understood (the boat!) and took the leap of going with Jesus into uncharted territory. In a storm. When it wasn’t easy or convenient.
Peter’s brief stint on the water with Jesus was the breeding ground for new perspective and faith to grow, taking His eyes off of what was going on around Him and focusing on Who Jesus was and what He was saying. The sinking only happened when He took His eyes off Jesus.
So how do waves, storms and walking on water blend in with a tangle of tech wires on my floor. It ties in beautifully! JC was in the middle of my chaotic, symbolic mess of recharge cords and computer wires. And every life crisis for that matter. For real.
I don’t need to live with inner chaos of multiple lines of thought, trying to manipulate multiple avenues of order and solutions in my little world.
Jesus, in John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (NIV)”
“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27 NIV
Literally “Take heart” was “Courage! Courage!” in the original language of John 16:33.
With God’s peace and wisdom readily available to me, and I can learn to be content in every situation (as the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:12-13), wait on Him to still the storm. Embrace new ways to think and live a deeper experience. Why would I let the chaos around me press deep into my soul, and steal my peace, when I can silence the storm and walk on the waves?!
I pray that today you would know how high and wide and deep is the love of God for you, and that you would reach for His perspective in your tangle of life-wires. That your heart would take courage in every area that feels chaotic and disorderly. And that the solutions that God already has planned for you would come to you at His perfectly appointed time of breakthrough. I encourage you to shift you gaze to Jesus, and onto what He’s saying and doing in your life. And know that when there’s chaos and storm, we can experience the vibrant Presence of God – and that’s a game changer!
Invite Him into your world and your storm today, and notice how Jesus imparts courage into your heart and solutions for your everyday life!
Copyright (c) 2019 Jennifer Bryant-Choong. All Rights Reserved.
