Between Plans and Spontaneity ...

Wednesday, June 13, 2012. I am a person, who is somewhere between steady and spontaneous. I realize that I have quite a spontaneous component in character. I like to do things which I did not plan - though these are often things which I have been thinking about for quite a while. So there seems to be some system in my own spontaneity …

Order and Chaos …

The world is between order and chaos. We like and need rules and order. We are using natural laws. Our technology and our whole society is built on order. Without it, we would not be able to plan, to invest, to carry out. Laws, order, regularity, repetitive things, well-behaved processes are needed in any complex society. We need to know how things will be done, and need to be able to rely on others and on institutions.

On the other hand, there is a lot of chaos in our world. Chaos is a world describing the unpredictability of events and processes. We are in the middle of historical events and developments, which are not predictable, not 100% clear. What might be the next technological wave? What will be the political system in 10 or 20 years from now? What will be our currency in Europe? What is next after the internet wave has completely taken over? There is no innovation without the chaotic component!

Personally, we are between steady and unsteady, between order and chaos, between projectable and non-projectable. Some of us tend more to the order side, others to the unpredictable edge. Both character features are needed!

Faith and Realiability …

Is faith giving us the great predictability, the complete order? We might think this sometimes, when God is described as the creator, who gave natural laws and made the universe as a big clock. But the image is only partially true. Faith does not mean that we know what will happen. It is rather the trust in him in all, what can happen!

Faith is not security. It is trust in insecurity. It is knowledge about the chaos in the world, which is there for many reasons. Freedom will always lead to a kind of chaos, a mixture of order and change.

We can be glad about order, and we can be glad about chaos. Both together in a balance will guarantee that we will not be stuck in complete predictability, bored out by knowing what will come anyway, without the possibility to change it. But it will also allow us to plan, to work towards a reliable future, which we can influence, since we know how this can be carried out! In all of this, faith can and will link us to Christ, who is our guiding force, who is the way, the truth and the life! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts