Facing disorder with the one who brings order

​I have a friend who is always helpful to talk to. I've concluded that what makes her so helpful to me is that she's faced an incredible amount of tragedy and suffering in her life. Because of that, we rarely have conversations built on avoiding struggles. We always get right to the part about dealing with them.

I think one thing I've noticed in these times - and plug in your description of these times: pandemic, racial reckonings, political season - is how desperately people want to maintain order and reason in their lives.

That in itself isn't unreasonable. Who doesn't like a life of order? The problem comes, I believe, when people pour all their energy into living a life that will somehow guarantee them a path that circumvents hardship and tragedy.

Over the years, I've become familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and their 12 step program. I've talked with hundreds of people who claim this program saved their lives. Do you know what the first of the 12 steps is? It's "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable."

I should add here, many of the people who I've talked to that credit this program with saving their lives weren't battling an alcohol problem. Many of them had other areas in their lives that had become unmanageable and they applied the AA steps to it.

For all of them, though, the first step was admitting I am powerless.

The second step? "Came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

By step two, they were already exploring their spiritual depths.

This friend of mine, she's never going to leave me feeling like life is helpless. She's been through enough in her life, though, to know I'm not the best person to help me. She's always going to move me quickly along the process of letting go of a need for order and pointing me to the one who will walk with me through disorder.

This friend of mine brings to life the following scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I think that is the devastating power of disorder and tragedy. They can make us feel like this moment is far from momentary and instead, leave us certain it is going to last forever. Tragedy and disorder keep us so focused on the moment at hand, fighting with all of our might to regain some sense of control and peace, that we lose sight of the unseen.

The hopelessness we find in trying to control the seen is what often blinds us most to the hope found in that unseen higher power.

I think we all have some area in our life that is calling us to take that first step today. Maybe it's not alcohol, but some other area of life that's become unmanageable. And maybe today - Monday - the start of a new week - would be the perfect day to just take that first step and say "I am powerless over........"

It's been my personal experience that is where we begin exploring and discovering the depths of our own spirituality.