I ordered breakfast and then received a text: an apology for tardiness. So, what else is new with tardiness and Filipinos? "Tardy" is almost every Filipino's middle name. I decided to read my Bible and do my quiet time, write reflections on my Moleskine. Another text message: "I don't think I'll make it...yadda..yadda...yadda!" I figured, might as well make the most of my time alone. I learned something out of my breakfast time:
Sometimes, out of a mess, great order is revealed.
Consider Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin. As one of Fleming’s biographers put it, “Tidiness was not one of Fleming’s strong points.” Fleming always meant to put his used culture plates in antiseptic (preliminary to washing them) but too often would let a huge pile grow, so that those on top were completely out of the antiseptic. A colleague dropped by to visit one day, and Fleming, pointing to a pile of experiment dishes, commented : “As soon as you uncover a culture dish, something tiresome is sure to happen. Things fall out of the air.” Fleming looked at his pile of mess, suddenly noticed that one of them had green mold on it, around which the staphylococcus bacteria colonies had disappeared. And so, because he was messy, Fleming discovered penicillin.
Then there's Christian Schonbein, who in the 1940’s, was working in his wife’s kitchen when he spilled some acid. He wiped off the mess with a handy cotton apron, then realized he should dry the apron, so his wife wouldn’t discover he’d used it to wipe up the acid. When he held the wet apron over the stove to dry it, the apron disappeared in a smokeless explosion. He had discovered how to produce nitrocellulose, or “guncotton,” which led to the development of plastic.
Sometimes from messy circumstances, a greater order is revealed. While I do not suggest there is no need for thoughtful order to one’s life, it’s truer than we’d like to admit that, no matter how hard we try to control our lives, disorder can rule any given day. Murphy's Law- "If anything can go wrong it will." Then of course there's the cliche: "Life is what happens when you’ve planned something else."
This is also true of our experience of Christ. It is often in the midst of the chaos we find ourselves in when we realize a need for order and that seemingly elusive thought of peace. Most Christians testify of their coming to faith in the midst of messy circumstances. It is in our sinfulness when we realize our need to emerge from such an existence.
This is true of the life of the Church. At Pentecost, when people thought the followers of Christ were drunk and goofing around when the Church was formed. Transformed lives gave birth to the church in which cowards became courageous, “the followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers…surprising things began to happen…they became brave and capable and wise…” (Barbara Taylor, Gospel Medicine). It was in the midst of a chaotic situation- of persecution and trouble- when the church grew the fastest, and learned new things on how to be a better organization and organism.
Such is true of our individual lives aside from our initial knowledge of Christ. Some of us have always lived a scripted, scheduled life, most of those, and in the middle of our organization– something happens: some unwanted, unplanned or unaccounted for events and outcomes, some disappointment in romance or career, some illness or sudden loss. And out of those times, we see our lives changed, our thoughts organized all the more, and we learn new things- things God would want for us to learn to chisel a character in us He desires to see.
Now, we all have plans for the future. Some of us think we have a handle on things. But be open to the surprises of God beyond our wildest thoughts, when that happens, He's up to something! He always is.
(sbauman.jon.las)
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