The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
God With Us… Even in the Chaos
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Hey friends, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes. Today is day seven of our unwrapped Christmas series. And today we're talking about chaos. That's what you want to talk about. Over the Christmas season or the holiday season. Maybe you're experiencing some chaos with your services this week. Maybe you're experiencing some chaos in your family relationships, as sometimes that happens over the holidays. But today we're talking about chaos, not just the holiday version, but the deeper kind, the mess that ministry leaders walk through a lot of times, and how Emmanuel still shows up right smack dab in the middle of it. So if we admit it, Christmas is often anything but peaceful, especially if you work in ministry and you've got extra services most likely. You've got some cranky volunteers, you've got spotty attendance, budget deadlines, you've got staff that are starting to burn out, and a hundred people expecting it all just to feel magical. Right? It's the perfect recipe for chaos. It's just chaotic. And you think, this does not feel like God with us. But here's where we forget. The very first Christmas, as we've talked about during this series, was also just filled with chaos. Let's re rewind one more time if we can about the Nativity story, not through stained glass or through your present eyes, but through reality. A government-mandated census forced everybody to travel, and at this time Mary was nine months pregnant, and she didn't just hop in the Honda Civic and drive to Bethlehem. She had to take a donkey. It was a it was days of journey. And when they got there, Bethlehem was packed. It was packed. There was no room anywhere, and no rooms at all. And the birth actually happened in a stable. No privacy, no cleanliness, no silence, animals probably everywhere. Smells, noises. Exhaustion. Can you imagine how exhausted Joseph and Mary were? And then you've got shepherds that just kind of show up out of nowhere, just uninvited, and looming in the background, a paranoid king ready to murder children. We think we've got a bad, we don't have a king that's wanting to murder children. This was not a curated Instagram moment. It was pure and exhausting and unfiltered chaos. And right in the middle of it, God came. Not when the world was ready, not when Mary and Joseph were rested, not when the setting was absolutely perfect, but in the imperfectness, in the noise, the unpredictability and the mess, God didn't wait for order. He actually stepped into the disorder. And believe it or not, friend, he still does. Let me bring this home. If you're in ministry, especially during this season, the Christmas season, you might be tempted to believe that presence requires peace and that God with us only shows up when the candles are lit and the worship set hits just right and the offering comes in above the projection that we had for it. But more than often, more often than not, God shows up in the green room meltdown. He shows up in the last minute tech scramble. He shows up in the staff tension that you didn't see coming and in the silent prayer between services where you say, Lord, I've just got nothing left. Matter of fact, that's where Emmanuel lives. Not above the chaos, but right smack I'm in the thick of it. Because here's the bottom line, here's the truth for today. God doesn't avoid chaos. Matter of fact, he enters it. And if your Christmas season feels messy and noisy and overwhelming, you might be closer to the manger than you realize. There have been times, I admit, when Christmas came and it I just felt nothing. I was too tired, I was too distracted, too busy, too in the weeds of ministry. And I felt guilty, like I was missing something sacred. But over time, the older I get, I realize that I wasn't missing it. I was living it. Christmas was never about emotional perfection. It was about presence, about God stepping into our frailty. And honestly, that realization is often where the real worship can begin. So here are your two reflection questions for today. First of all, where does your life or leadership feel the most chaotic right now? Think about that. Where is your life or your leadership the most chaotic right now? And then here's the follow-up. How might God be present right there? Not after it calms down, but right in the middle of the mess. Think about that for today. It's Christmas week, a couple days till Christmas. If you're listening to this on the day it was released, Merry Christmas to you and make this a great holiday season. And remember, sometimes God lives in the chaos. Right to Magdad, and you might be right there, and guess what? God is right there with you.
