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Finding Peace in Chaos - It's All About Encounter

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This article is part of a series on finding peace in everyday chaos. It may be better to start from the beginning.

It was one of those mornings where I just wanted to go back to bed. I managed to turn off both of my alarms without becoming conscious. Getting out of bed was done under protest. No amount of coffee or prayer was snapping me out of my funk. I’m normally a morning person, what was wrong with me?

Oddly, the day before had been great! I defined success, I rode the wave, I made progress toward my goals, and my vocations aligned in a way that made me think for one brief evening that I actually knew how to do what I’ve been writing about!

Why did it all feel so empty the next morning? Why did it seem pointless?

Thankfully, God was merciful and didn’t make me stew too long. He let me know that I had done everything right and still managed to completely miss the point.

I believed the lie that peace comes from living life well. By doing the right things I would be content. By stripping away the noise and nonsense that usually blinds me I didn’t find peace, I found… nothing.

Worldly success is dangerous. Those who think they’ve climbed to the top of the mountain often despair. They say Alexander the Great wept when he ran out of lands to conquer. Human nature clamors to fill itself with more because it hates the void inside. Only one question can be asked within the disillusioned heart that runs well, fights hard, wins the race, and wakes up the next morning to see nothing has changed.

Is this all there is?

How stubborn is the pride in my heart? Where does peace amid everyday chaos come from? The chaos doesn’t give us peace. The process doesn’t give us peace. Everyday life doesn’t give us peace.

God gives us peace.

The point—the whole point—of this process has been to quiet our hearts enough to catch a glimpse of the One who is our peace. We turn down the volume of the world for no reason except to hear the sound of His still small voice.

Living well doesn't fulfill us. That’s vanity bordering on idolatry (and idiocy). We learn to live well so we can see through the thin surface layer of life into the deep reality behind it.

We live this way to encounter God.

Encounter

God wants to be with you. He wants meaningful time with you. He wants to connect beyond the glances of strangers, the small talk of acquaintances, and even the warm pleasantries of friends. He wants intimacy with you. Honesty. Seeing and being seen.

That’s what it means to encounter.

Jesus’ first disciples simply hung out with him (Jn 1:35-39). After one conversation, the woman at the well was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah (Jn 4:4-42). The people of her town all believed after meeting Him, too. He didn’t perform crazy miracles for any of them. He didn’t heal them or drive out demons.

He encountered them and it changed them.

Encounter has been the destination of every step of the path to peace. Our various plans and processes have been designed to quiet the noise, convert the heart, and sharpen the senses to become more available to meet God where He’s waiting for us.

The whole point of taming, mastering, and surrendering our vocations is to look beyond them to their source. Our vocations are designed to lead us to God. If they don’t, they’re just a job.

We will look at several images of encountering God next time, but for now, it’s enough to know that encounter is the goal.

Use the freedom found in the process so far to look and listen. Ask that God may let you encounter Him. Seek, and you will find.

Conclusion

When we started this series, we defined success as:

Regardless of our emotional response to a situation, success looks like faithfully trusting that God is real, confidently hoping that He has not given up on or abandoned us, and choosing to treat others and ourselves with charity whether we feel like it or not.

Where does this radical confidence in God’s goodness come from? How can we be so sure He will be there through thick and thin? How do we learn to value possessions, relationships, our health, and everything else only by the way they assist or hinder our relationship with God?

Encounter Him.

Let Him move from an idea to a person. Let Him in and the chaos falls into place, not because the chaos has changed, but because we see it for what it is: the place Jesus has chosen to be with us.

What could give more peace than encountering Him right here? Right now?

God bless us on our journey.
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