When Faith and Organizing Collide

Purpose. Meaning. Being Loved. Belonging. All things a human desires.

Add one more thing to the list for me: being rescued and redeemed by my Savior.

We live in a broken and heart-wrenching world. A world that is out of order. That is chaotic. A world where “organizing” is not it’s first characteristic. Where is the hope?

I asked myself that same question when I was young. I grew up in a Christian family – a family that believed not only IN religion, but a relationship with our Creator – the One who has saved us from this brokenness. The One who rescued us from the pit of despair and chaos. My life was “wrecked” when I started to follow God. Wrecked in the sense that I knew I needed to stop following the ways of the world, and start following the One who has given me life. And out of my gratitude for His sacrifice on the cross, comes a desire to live a life of order, of purpose, of meaning. I can’t keep it quiet.

That is where my faith and organizing collide.

I can’t help it. Organizing has just been a bi-product of my faith. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” You can choose to disagree with me on some or all of this, but I feel that this is not how life should be. Our world is chaotic because of sin – because of the choices we make. But God, (who even came down in human form) has shown us what peace and orderliness looks like. It all started at the creation of the world. Whether you believe in a 7 literal day creation or see it as a figure of speech, what is represented is that God created order. God created everything in the order He did, for a purpose. He had a rhythm and reason for the order. It wouldn’t make sense if the fish were created before the water (imagine that?).

Think about the purpose of day and night. John 9:4 says “As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” There is order set forth in how our days are set up. Day for working, night for sleeping. Such a simple concept, right? But how often do we create chaos out of the order? It is in our days (or even if you work 3rd shift and your “night” is different) that we are to make the most out of every minute. Time is valuable. Yet time is something we so easily lose track of and therefore fall into chaos and disorder because of our lack of time management.

Out of managing our time, comes the need to organize. God organized His world in such a way, that it would run perfectly. Then sin entered the world and threw the order into disorder, the perfect into chaos. We clutter our lives with possessions. We fill our lives with the unnecessary. Clutter creates confusion. It creates a place of unrest. God created this world with everything it needed. Yet we hoard and think that we need more and more for our wants. Living an organized life means having a place for everything we have, keeping them in good order, and living with what we’ve been blessed with, with a desire for no more. Yet we let clutter clog our lives.

Why? Because we covet what others have. We make idols out of our possessions. Luke 12:15 says “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Hold the phone – really? Life ISN’T about what we own? Then why do we continue to MAKE life about how much we have? Some may argue that it is important to get what you want – but ask any dead person if it really mattered what they owned? At a funeral, do they ever talk about WHAT they owned? No, typically they talk about WHO the person is – not the abundance of their possessions. In fact, it is often the family that is left behind, that has to deal with the aftermath of their clutter and disorder they left back in their home. Ask yourself: if I passed away today, would I feel sorry for my family who would have to deal with all my clutter?

That is why my faith and organizing collide. I can’t do one without the other. I feel I have an obligation to take care of what God has created and what He has blessed me with. Do I own more than I can even keep organized? Do I have a place for everything that I own? Am I showing respect to God through what I own? Or do I reflect someone who thinks life is about the abundance of my possessions?

So now what? How do I keep myself from swaying too far into confusion, chaos, and disorder? This is where my relationship with God is crucial. Spending quality time with the One who created me, seeking His will for my life – in how to manage our home, in what to keep, what not to keep – and learning to live the best life I can, for Him.

My hope is that you too, can find ways that faith and organizing collide.