Peace in the Chaos

One of life’s inevitabilities is that chaos will occur. In fact, Jesus gives us a gift to help when the chaos appears —peace. This gift not only allows us as Christ followers to encounter our own chaos, but it enables us to step into the chaos with others so that they might experience Jesus in their own circumstances.

Vonnie Crumpton, one of our client life coaches, has one of her original paintings in her office that exemplifies why she volunteers each week. This picture shows a person in the midst of a sea of orange that attempts to overwhelm the painting. The person standing on a dock atop a body of water stands calmly amidst chaos with a hole in her chest. At a quick glance, it appears that the figure is overwhelmed and losing hope. For Vonnie, this woman is actually sitting in the presence of Jesus in the middle of chaos with passion burning in her heart to help others experience Jesus’ healing presence in their own situation.
One example of this in action can be seen in Vonnie’s commitment to helping out Carol. When Carol first arrived at the Center, she overheard Vonnie tell another participant, “It is my joy to help you.” This inspired Carol to ask specifically for Vonnie to be her life coach.

Carol confessed that she had never heard anyone in her life say that it was a joy to serve someone else. Over the course of Carol’s time at Center of Hope, she and Vonnie have developed a close friendship. This friendship has allowed Vonnie to speak hope into Carol’s chaos: a cancer diagnosis and other health concerns. While Carol is still fighting these health battles, she told Vonnie, “I have the faith and that’s all I can lean on right now. The faith that God’s got this.”