There is a lot to be uneasy about right now.  This coronavirus is not only deadly, it also seems to be highly contagious.  People are dying.  They are dying alone.  Those that are left behind have to grieve alone.  On another level, people are losing their jobs, and their businesses.

A lot to be uneasy about.

Total chaos.

There is an old history to this phrase “total chaos”.  An ancient wisdom.  At the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures this word shows up almost immediately.  It is the word tohu.  

“Now the earth was tohu…”

Sometimes it is translated as “waste” or “formlessness” or “desert”.  It is that feeling of being in a wide open, dangerous terrain and not knowing which way to go, which way is up, what is true north.

I think that is the unease beneath the unease right now.  On the surface, there is anxiousness about sickness and death and scarcity.  For ourselves.  For those we love.  But beneath that, there is this sense that things have been thrown into chaos.  Our normative routines don’t work anymore.  Our schedules no longer make sense.

I mean, what are our kids going to do all day?

What are we going to do without our suddenly out-of-date calendars?

This underlying thing—this chaos in our daily patterns—makes it incredibly hard to stomach and manage and tackle the significant challenges hitting us right now.

This is a real thing.  Professional athletes, in order to perform when the stakes are the highest, have learned how to survive and even thrive in these circumstances.  It isn’t that they get nervous less than the rest of us.  No.  They have nerves just like we do.  What they are able to do is plan for such occasions, so that when the heat is on, they can perform at their best.

They do this by establishing a consistent routine.  You can see this outwardly when a basketball player steps up to the free throw line.  One bounce.  Look at the basket.  Two bounces, three spins in the hands.  Look at the basket.  Let the shot go.

And that’s just on the outside.  On the inside, a routined athlete is clearing their mind of everything but their target. Blocking everything else out.  It allows them to perform in front of millions of viewers the same way they perform when practicing alone in the gym.

And that is one of the great difficulties right now.  Not only are we under an incredible amount of pressure and stress and fear and grief as a (global) people, this virus has also taken us out of the routines that allow us to do what we need to do in the midst of it.

This is the important work for me right now: establishing some new routines.  I used to work out and swim laps twice a week.  Gone.  Do my job a particular kind of way.  Gone.  Gather with spiritual friends.  

Gone.

I need new routines.  New routines of getting my work done, finding space to rest, making time for my family.  Without these routines, I’ll simply check the latest (bad) news, check my cupboard for how many canned beans, wipes, toilet paper I have, go check the (bad) news again.

Not helpful.

Now…

When the ancient Hebrew Scriptures speak of there being “total chaos” at the beginning, it is followed up with this, “…and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (chaos).” Which leads to God shaping the chaos like this, “And there was evening, and there was morning.”

The words for “evening”—erev—and “morning”—boker, in the old language, can also mean “disorder” and “order”.

“And there was disorder, and there was order.”

When total chaos is what we find ourselves in, we are meant to watch for the Spirit hovering, bringing order out of disorder. 

Rhythm and routine out of anxiety and uncertainty.

Perhaps this is our next work in this crisis, to shape our routines again. To align our work and rest and play and service with who the Spirit is, and what the Spirit does.

Because she is still at work bringing life and order out of death and disorder.

There is a peace to knowing what our target is, what the next thing to do is, where exactly we should place our next step.  And the one after that.

And the one after that.

The ancient wisdom reminds us that we are not alone in this work of reshaping our sacred routines in the midst of total chaos.

We are not alone as we step up to the line and let the next shot go.