Here is my journal entry for this past Sunday:

“Sunday, July 22, 2018

I would really like to live a more orderly life.

But do I want to do the hard work of getting my life in order and the even harder work of keeping it in order?  Getting order and keeping order are both hard work.  Chaos is so much easier.

Or is it?

Is it really easier to spend half-an-hour looking for something, and then finding it where it shouldn’t have been in the first place?  Is it really easier living with a sense of clutter?  Perhaps it isn’t order that is the hard work.  Perhaps it is chaos that saps the energy.”

So my wife and I had a chat about organization.  She is; I’m not.  She is not compulsive about being organized.  She is just organized.  In fact, she is a nice blend of organized and spontaneous.  I think that her organization makes it easier for her to be spontaneous.  Because she is not concerned with where her car keys are, or what she needs to do (and when), she is able to have spontaneous fun at times.

I, on the other hand, am a compulsively chaotic person.  And that, dear readers, is no fun at all!

It is easy for me to admire organized people.  It is easy for me to want to be an organized person.  Sometimes, I even want to get organized, but then, there is the matter of staying organized.  I’m not quite so keen on that.

In the context of corporate worship, the Apostle Paul writes, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)  Perhaps the same would be a good principle for every area of my life.

I was once talking with a navy man who had been stationed on a battleship in the South Pacific during World War II.  I asked about the Navy’s well-known tendency to have sailors sweeping and polishing and making everything just so.

“Was that just to keep the sailors busy during slack times?” I asked.

“That was part of it,” he acknowledged.  But then, he continued.  “That emphasis on order had a more practical aspect, though.  You see, we never knew when the Japanese air force would attack, and we had to be ready to move fast.  When the alarm was sounded, there were men running in every direction to their battle stations.  If something was out of place, a man might trip and not get to his gun placement in time.  A few seconds could make the difference between us shooting down one of their planes, and them blowing up our ship.”

There is a wonderful song that may give me a clue as to how to make my life more orderly, “This Is Amazing Grace” by Phil Wickham.

“Who breaks the power of sin and darkness
Whose love is mighty and so much stronger
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder
And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

This is amazing grace
This is unfailing love
That You would take my place
That You would bear my cross
You lay down Your life
That I would be set free
Oh, Jesus, I sing for
All that You’ve done for me

Who brings our chaos back into order
Who makes the orphan a son and daughter
The King of Glory, the King of Glory”

Did you catch those words near the end?  “Who brings our chaos back into order.”  The idea is that God, in his amazing grace, brings our chaos back into order.  So, while I must certainly cooperate and do my part to order my life, if this song is right, then God himself is graciously bringing my life back into order.  That takes a lot of pressure off me, and helps me to relax and do what I need to do to order my life!  God Himself is graciously ordering my life!

There is an old song, the words of which were written by William Cowper, that makes the same point.  Cowper was no stranger to depression.  In fact, he survived a number of suicide attempts and being institutionalized in insane asylums. And yet, he penned these words:

“And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of thy holiness.”

It’s a wonderful wish.  It’s an even more wonderful prayer.