Noah's Ark take five

17 The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.  Genesis 7:17-24

What do you do when the waters/chaos/storms of life swirl around you?  What is your ark, your happy place, your way of trying to stay afloat?  Who do you turn to?

I am not sure I have definite answers to those questions.  I'd like to be the kind of person who says that, "Prayer" is my ark.  Or to quote the great hymn, "No storm can shake my in most calm while to that rock I am clinging."  But the truth is, I am just as sea sick from the storms of life as the next person.  As I type this, breaking news of another shooting at Ft. Hood is being reported; my family is still trying to settle into the house we moved into last weekend; my kids are trying to adjust to a new school/make new friends; I am learning to adjust to life in Florida; and the church I serve is living through a difficult time.  Chaos might just be the new normal.

When God set out to create all that is seen and unseen, Genesis 1 starts off by telling us that in the beginning it was just God and chaos.  Chaos was the raw material as God sang and life actually came out of the chaos.  Since when should life be void of chaos since it seems, in some way, to be woven into our DNA?  I think our theology has failed us here.  Too often we think of faith as an insurance policy.  That somehow when the rain clouds appear and the storms rage, we should be able to call on God to stop it all.  What if, chaos was never fully conquered or squelched in the beginning?  What if, life is a dance between chaos and creation?  Or, a dance between the rain/storms as the sunshine?  

Now, to be sure, I do not like the fact that all of creation...save Noah...parish to share this truth in the Noah story.  These verses are part of the reason why I don't think we should decorate baby's room with this theme.  But sometimes chaos claims life.  The shooting at Ft. Hood claimed too many lives today.  Violence from war claims too many lives.  School shooting; struggling in mind/body/spirit claims too many lives; trying to make ends meet/job loss claims too many lives; words spoken hastily claims too many lives.  All of this is true from my experience.  And maybe we want to blame God for all this.  But the truth is, as humans, we are accountable and responsible for the chaos too.  We create, alongside our still creating God, sometimes the works of our hands and words of our lips are beautiful...sometimes what we create is brokenness.  Sometimes it is somewhere in-between.

So, what do you cling to in the midst of the chaos?  Where is your happy place?  I invite you to ponder prayerfully that today...and may God grant all of us a safe, sacred ark to weather the storms we face today.  And may we find more than a trace of grace in that.

Blessings ~