Love and conditions

"For someone who loves unconditionally," my inner skeptic says, "God sure does bring a lot of rules." But God's rules are not conditions to love, but outlining what is good for us. Good parents, unconditional loving parents, will tell children 'no'. Don't touch that, it burns. Sit down and fasten your seatbelt, or you'll get hurt. Not conditions to love, but explanations how things work, warnings of real dangers.

A startling song

Mac Brock's song I Am Loved depicts a meeting with our heavenly Father.  The refrain distracted me at first:

There is no disappointment in Your eyes
There is no shame there is only pride

I thought "no disappointment?" That's overdone. Surely I've disappointed God in many ways.
But as I thought further, I think the song is right.  I am indeed forgiven, so deeply forgiven. That's what the Scripture means to say our sins are removed from us as far as the east from the west. That's what it means when it says he will remember our sin no more. That is what the loving father showed when the prodigal came home, dressing him anew in fine robes and the golden ring and commanding a feast.

Why do I hesitate at this picture of the depths of grace? Am I still thinking that being saved by grace is fine for other people, but I'd like to earn a gold star? Isn't the central act of this story really about the wonder of who God is, the forgiver and reconciler? Why do I keep wanting to (or why am I driven to) think the story needs to be about how well or poorly I have done?

The Joy of the Lord

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” We’ve all seen this many times laid over a beautiful image. What is the context?
The whole sentence: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The whole verse: “Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

What was the situation? Nehemiah had come to Jerusalem, and inspired the people to start rebuilding the wall. They had begun, Nehemiah called the people to persist despite the opposition. The work was not yet finished, but well under way. The people all gathered in Jerusalem and urged Ezra the priest to read the Law to them. Ezra and several Levites read and explained the Law to the people. And the people wept. Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites said this was a holy day, they should not weep but celebrate. Verse 10 is the key of Nehemiah’s exhortation — don’t mourn, celebrate.
Why did the people mourn? I’m sure they must have listened to the Law and thought of all the times they had not obeyed. They were reminded this is why their ancestors were sent into exile, failure to keep the Law. They heard “Do these things and you will live,” and thought “We have not done these things. We are doomed.”

But Nehemiah and the other leaders insisted they should not mourn but celebrate. And we in the New Covenant should rejoice even more.  Even the old covenant had grace, the message that God wanted to make a people for himself and would be with them. And the new covenant makes this clearer. God will do these things in our hearts so we will live. Don’t perceive the commands of God as things to do to be saved, but as the promises of God, what God will do in us because he longs to save.

Life is difficult

“Life is difficult.” This first sentence of M. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled is startling. Peck goes on to say that this truth, once grasped makes life simple. Probably an exaggeration to make a point, but the point makes sense. If you start out thinking life should be easy, you are disturbed and upset when it is not. If you start out thinking life is difficult, the difficulty can become easier to bear. Yes, this thing, this event in my life is awkward, annoying, gruesome, horrifying. But it’s not like I was singled out to be made miserable when almost everyone else has it easy. I can see embracing this truth could make you more inclined to gratitude, to appreciate what is good rather than angrily critique what is not perfect.

I am not totally shocked by the concept that life starts out difficult. But I have often felt the expectation that it should become easy. Such is the notion of progress we’ve all grown up with. Technology is getting better and better, so life should be getting easier and easier. A new software comes along, we’re excited. Wow, in just a few clicks we can get something that took hours by typing before. But when something comes up that is still complicated? They didn’t think through this part. I hope the next version makes this part easy.

In the spiritual life, there is a similar view. God has saved us, brought us into his kingdom; if we really understood the Gospel, if we just have enough faith, if we learn to pray correctly, read Scripture correctly, do something else correctly, all should be well. No major difficulties left in life since God is with us.

But in the implications of the Gospel, in the calling of Jesus to die to ourselves, take up the cross daily as we follow, there is a clear reminder that life with God still remains difficult, even despite all the ways he has blessed us. He blesses in part, and leaves us to wait, to follow through awkwardness and pain, to come to him with our heart agonies that may still remain agonies after we pray, the answer “not yet, not yet. My grace is sufficient for you.”

Cursing Gravity

“Cursing gravity
You can disdain gravity all you want, call out its unfairness, seek to have it banned.
But that's not going to help you build an airplane.”  Seth Godin.

It does seem what God often chooses to do is to leave a limitation in place, to permit and require us to learn to cope, endure, even thrive in its presence.

The limits of anger

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1:19-20)

A word many in our time need to hear, I think. Contemporary politics, both right and left wing, seem shaped by the belief that pure and uncompromising anger against wrongdoers on the other side is what is most needed.

A similar perspective from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an unuprooted small corner of evil. 

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.” 

God's truth will illumine many falsehoods, the ones inside us and the ones inside others. Let us oppose falsehood, seeking God's grace to constrict it within us; praying for our opponents that God would enlighten them.

Wine and Communion

Good quote from Gisela Kreglinger

The drinking of wine in the Lord’s Supper draws us into the world of sacrifice. It is here that the spiritual meaning of wine takes on multiple facets that offer rich reflections for Christian life and practice. Just as grapes must be gathered, crushed, and turned into fine wine through the miracle of fermentation, so must human life come under the loving judgment of God.

Book preview

http://www.patheos.com/…/gisela-kreglinger-on-wine-lords-…/…

The law, the Word, grace and truth

Psalm 119, longest chapter in the Bible. The writer is so convinced the law is a great thing. This startles us, because we're convinced Jesus is so much greater than the Law. As John says, the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

But Psalm 119 does say God is greater than the law. "Your word, Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations." Just as John proclaims the Word as eternal, from the beginning with God, the Word with God, who is God.

Psalm 89 reminds us of something else firm in the heavens. God's covenant with David, to establish his line, his throne forever. Praise to the Son of David, who has ruled, who will rule forever.

Does God offer reproducible results?

One of the foundations of the scientific method is the notion of reproducible results. If you describe your experiment clearly enough, others should be able to do the experiment and get the same results. If not, there is something wrong with your work. Either you’re faking it, you’re careless (so the description of how you did the experiment is not complete), or there is some other variable you haven’t thought of.

But Scripture presents narratives where results are not reproduced. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, God sends Moses to confront Pharaoh, initiate all kinds of plagues on Egypt, then finally lead the people out of Egypt, where they are trapped on the seashore, Moses prays and the waters part, so the people march across, and the waters close in again on Pharaoh and his army when he attempts to pursue. Did anyone ever repeat that result? Not really. The people did march across the Jordan riverbed between two walls of water in Joshua’s time; but no plagues, no enemies being drowned.

The people of Israel were carried off as exiles and slaves to Assyria. Did a deliverer rise up to bring them back to the land? No. The people of Judah were carried off as exiles to Babylon. Did a deliverer rise up to bring them back to the land? No single leader steadfast against opposition like Moses, but there were leaders, witnesses to God’s presence. Daniel and Ezekiel gave words of prophecy and encouragement while they were in exile, Ezra led people back to the land, and Nehemiah led more back, and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Did Ezra and Nehemiah see powerful miracles, signs that God was with them? While God did enable them to succeed against great odds, there were not powerful miracles like waters parting, plagues upon the enemies of God, or God appearing like a pillar of cloud or smoke.

So a scientist might be forgiven for wondering if Scripture were really true. It does not present reproducible events, it seems. But one difference between science and theology ought to be made clear. Science mostly concerns itself with matter and impersonal forces. Forces that though powerful can be manipulated when you understand how they work. Theology deals with God, who is a person. In personal relationships, reproducible results are not guaranteed. Doing the exact same thing does not get the exact same response every time from your friends or neighbors. So its not inconsistent to believe it wouldn’t with God either. People of faith testify to a certain degree of reproducibility — they learn to perceive that God is there whether they see him or not, and that when they pray things do happen. Not always what they pray for, but God does comfort, help and encourage in a variety of ways. But he seems to value being unpredictable in how he will comfort, help and encourage.

The Christian life is not really dealing with nonreproducible results, but in nonreproduced results. God is capable of doing again what he did once, but he chooses not to do so to a perhaps surprising degree. But when we remember God is not an impersonal force we can control, maybe this outcome is not so surprising. When we think of spirituality as a relationship with a good and powerful friend that we don’t control, even though he cares for us, maybe the nonreproduced results become more understandable. God often does not repeat the details of how he provides and cares, but his being with us, providing and caring for us, are reproduced experiences.

Letdown

Did Jesus’ disciples have a post-Easter letdown? We can read how they struggled to believe in the accounts of the resurrection, but then they saw him. That must have been awesome. But how many more times did they see him? Luke says he stayed with them for forty days, then was taken up into heaven.

Did they wonder what on earth Jesus was doing? “Lord, why are you going away again? Isn’t it obvious how lost we are without you?”

Then Pentecost, the Spirit came with power, tongues of fire and words you had no idea what you were saying, except that others said you were praising God and declaring his works in languages they understood. And the small group of one hundred disciples is now over three thousand.

Yet Pentecost was just a one day event. Normal life comes back. Questions, doubts must have come. You must have exaggerated, made up that story. It’s sure not happening now, is it?

All of Scripture really is a series of one time events that don’t repeat. But we are called to remember the God who acted, and is still present, even if hidden.

The one who is able

One of my wife's favorite passages of Scripture:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21. 

I have a complicated relationship with these words. I think more often I've prayed and God did significantly less than I asked for. I can remember praying in the 70s that Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev would come to Christ. It didn't happen (as far as I know). In the 2000s I prayed that Osama Bin Laden would come to Christ. That didn't happen (as far as I know). When I told my wife how I was praying for Osama, she said that sounds good, but don't get disappointed if it does not happen. She knows me well.

I notice Paul clearly does not say God will give us more than all we can ask for or imagine. He says God is able to do more than all we ask or imagine. 

But I have seen God answer with more than I asked. In 2001 right after a conference which had talked about mentoring, I was in church thinking I wasn't sure anyone had ever mentored me. And I prayed, God mentor me. I don't quite remember what I was expecting, but I look back and realize God has been answering that prayer for years now. I believe I have been mentored now. Yet keep it coming, Lord, I need more. 

And I'm sure when I see God face to face, I will see how much more he has done, far beyond what I have asked for or imagined. Saying he is able won't be such a theoretical exercise as it often feels now. 

“However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him— 1 Cor 2:9, also Isaiah 64:4

Secrets and Significance

Like anyone, I wonder if what I do matters. Who really notices?

A curious novel encouraged me last fall on this topic: Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. A fantasy-like novel set in contemporary San Francisco. An obscure guy, once web designer now bookstore clerk, uncovers a secret hidden by a 16th century typeface designer, a secret that Google with all their computing power had failed to find. 

Maybe totally unrealistic, but the story touched me. I am convinced that each of us knows things that Google or Apple or Amazon do not know, that the media and politics do not know, and that these things matter to God. I could make a joke of this (altered from a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln): "God must love details. He made so many of them." But I think it is true, not just a joke.

Along these lines, I think of the liturgy C. S. Lewis imagined at the end of Perelandra. A few snippets of it:

Each thing was made for Him. He is the centre. Because we are with Him, each of us is at the centre. ...
In the plan of the Great Dance plans without number interlock ...
All that is made seems planless to the darkened mind, because there are more plans than it looked for. ... There seems no plan because it is all plan: there seems no centre because it is all centre. Blessed be He.

God knows, God hears, something whispers to me, and I believe it. I feel joy, and think I can be calm, I can listen, I don't have to prove myself.

The persistent widow and the lamb that was slain

My devotional paired two readings the other day: Luke 18:1-8, the parable of the persistent widow; and Revelation 5, the Lamb that was slain celebrated as worthy to open the seal.

They do resonate together. The widow persists in crying out for justice, until the judge who doesn’t care decides to give in and respond so she’ll stop bothering him. How much more, Jesus says, will the Father hear those who cry out for justice day and night? He will swiftly grant justice.

“Swiftly?” I want to ask. Jesus can’t mean that literally, or else there would be no need for persistence in crying out. I suppose he’s presenting the eternal perspective; that the injustice or afflictions we suffer for a day, a week, ten years, a lifetime, all seem so short compared to the fullness of eternity. So don’t be afraid to cry out to God in suffering, he does hear and will swiftly answer (and the time will come that it will appear swift).

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the one who appeared weak, gave no resistance, is also the victorious Lion who has conquered. The great Winner is the one who appeared as the Loser, helpless and weak who did not defend himself. So losing is winning, crying out and not getting what you ask for is not a loss but a gain. Can I believe that?

I met a celebrity once

A response to Addie Zierman's new book, Night Driving

What great news. Addie Zierman, that great blogger and author of a compelling memoir about the shallowness of evangelical certainty was coming out of distant Minnesota to our odd corner of North Carolina, and we could go see her. But as the day drew closer, I began to fear. She’d come, read from her book, and go away again, and I’d never have a chance to say how I’d connected with her words. Or if I did have a minute, would it come out clear, or all tangled up. So often I have this image of something to say that looks so clear and compelling, but putting it into words comes out such a mess. Or perhaps worst of all, I’d manage to be adequately coherent, she’d listen and politely smile, say that was all so very interesting and then disappear, not getting a word of it.

After all, who was I to attempt to talk to her? She’s a celebrity. A blogger that people actually read, a writer with a real published book that is sold in bookstores. Who was I? A blogger no one read, a self-published writer whose book hadn’t sold. But surely, my heart whispered, she ought to know how much it would mean to me if she listened and accepted my thoughts. She’d validate my existence, let me know I counted for something, was on the right track. But if she didn’t, if she snubbed me, could I handle the disappointment?

When she posted on her blog that she was cancelling her Charleston appearance because she just couldn’t fit it in, I wondered if she would soon cancel the Charlotte stop too. Maybe it would be just as well. Less risky. But the blog post affirmed she was keeping the Charlotte date. So maybe it was up to me to decide to stay away, keep hidden. But I decided to go ahead.

Addie in person was pretty cool. She recognized me, just because I’d commented on her blog and Facebook. She read from her book, then summarize what happened between that excerpt and the next one she’d read, and her extemporaneous summaries were as articulate as her written text. In the QA my wife got to tell her story of reading Addie’s book just at the right time to encourage someone else. And I learned another intriguing detail. Not only had she come to Charlotte, but she was actually staying just a few miles from our house miles south of Charlotte. The kind of odd coincidence that any evangelical knows has to be a God thing. (Aside: Why do we do this? God makes and arranges so many unique circumstances, but we only celebrate the oddly coincidental ones. Aren’t the other ones any less his handiwork?).

So that was the darkness I wandered in, feeling I needed Addie’s attention to be whole, to be noteworthy. Oh a celebrity, so grand, so far above me. How wonderful if she should look down from the heights of fame and notice me — then my life would be worth something. But faith reminds me my life is truly worth something; God looks down from the heights of heaven, and not only sees me, but longs for and invites me to relationship.

The new book, Night Driving is her story of this road trip. I can't wait to get to the part where she gets to Charlotte and meets me :)

My other posts about Addie Zierman
Addie Zierman and the Second World War
Addie Zierman
The Happy Middle

Addie Zierman and the Second World War

Sometimes you read a book and it shines a light on something completely different. Addie Zierman’s memoir When We Were on Fire did that for me. She writes of growing up evangelical in the 90’s, of the certainty of that subculture that if you did and said all the right things all would be well and effortless. I became an evangelical in the 70’s and I recognized her world. She had different popular bands, and different slogans, but the certitude that you could Get It Right was the same. Now don’t misunderstand, evangelicalism does get much right — the call to a relationship with Jesus Christ and to plunge deep into Scripture are two very right things. But the belief We Can Get it Right and Must Get it Right has dangers.

I’ve had a lifelong fascination with World War II. As a child, I knew the Hollywood version, where the heroes almost never died, even when things looked their darkest. I read history some to know that wasn’t totally realistic, but still the war ended in a resounding victory less than four years after Pearl Harbor. One of my favorite books growing up was called Great American Fighter Pilots of World War II, and my favorite chapter was about the Marianas Turkey Shoot. In the war against Japan, American fighter pilots started with big disadvantages, since the Japanese Zero was a better plane. But about a year before the end of the war, the Americans had a new fighter plane, the F6F, that outshone the Zero. The result, the Americans had a battle that seemed easy, like target practice (hence the name “Turkey shoot”). I loved this story — things only stay hard for a short time, then they become easy.

Another childhood memory: sitting in my living room, the radio is playing To Dream the Impossible Dream. I listen to the words and think that is how life ought to be. To dream the impossible dream, to fight the impossible fight, to dare with my last ounce of courage. Can these two memories be reconciled? Is life an impossible dream, requiring courage and self sacrifice, or is it a crisis that can soon be resolved? I think I attempted a reconciliation; to believe when the crisis came you should dare everything, hold nothing back, break through the opposition and things would sooner or later become easy.

The evangelical faith I found in college adopted this notion of dare everything and break through to victory. Is it not what Jesus did? He suffered and died, and on the third day he rose again. Then the Spirit came upon the church at Pentecost, and the church began to spread. But unfortunately the church grew complacent and overly traditional, and compromised. We needed to rediscover the fire, get serious again and turn the world upside down.

Addie was taught the same image. Do the right things, it may be hard at first but you’ll soon be victorious. She wasn’t prepared for doing the right things, and finding life was still hard. Neither was I. When I’d been an evangelical over twenty years, a realization hit like a shock one day. I’d been a Christian over three times as long as World War II had ever lasted, (even for the British who fought for six years), and I still hadn’t gotten to the easy phase. I wondered what I might have gotten wrong, came close to giving up on the faith, but got to a new understanding. I’d been emotionally misunderstanding the promises of God for years, interpreting them as recipes to get to the easy phase. They are not keys to an easy life. They are assertions to cling to when life is hard, to remember God is with you.

At the same time I first read Addie’s book, I saw a comment Winston Churchill made to a friend during the war. Americans, he said, are prone to thinking once you have made the key decision, all will go well. Evangelical theology has the same tendency to oversimplification. If you’ve done the key thing, given your heart to Jesus (and that is key, I’m not suggesting it isn’t), all should be well. But I’ve come to realize that perhaps the standard narrative of Scripture is not the hero who finds faith in God so all becomes easy, but the hero who finds faith in God, and clings to that faith and God’s promises when circumstances remain bleak.

I’ve just recently read again the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. My old style of thinking returned: what great faith, what a great victory. If only we had the same faith. But I look again, and realize the story isn’t quite like that. Yes, Elijah had faith and saw a great victory. But it wasn’t the kind of victory that made everything easy from then on. Jezebel was still out to get him, king Ahab was still lukewarm in faith (at best). A real ultimate victory would have been to unite Israel and Judah together once again, make the two one kingdom, worshiping together at the temple in Jerusalem. That didn’t happen. This story too, like the stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the unnamed heroes of faith in the last verses of Hebrews 11, is about someone who had faith, who say the hand of God sustain his faith, but did not yet see the resolution of all problems.

Yesterday I started Night Driving, Addie’s second book. I felt a twinge of disturbance at the beginning. She’s still struggling with those same issues of life being messy that she described in When We Were on Fire? Why? Then it dawned on me. My disturbance was the old longing for instant and dramatic victory, only slightly readjusted. You learn that life is hard, that God is with you in the hard times but doesn’t always instantly remove the hard parts; that does not bring on its own instantaneous victory where you adjust your expectations once and then proceed serenely with perfect patience through the ongoing messes of life. 

Greeting to the Trinity

O loving heavenly Father, who runs to meet us and welcome us home;
O elder brother, who is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters;
O Spirit, who makes us the place chosen for the dwelling of his Name.

  sources: 
Luke 15:20
Hebrews 2:11
2 Corinthians 6:16, Deut 12:11

Significance in God's sight

A thought struck me this morning. Sometimes I've thought about heaven as a place where we can admire great art -- as lovely as this world is, heaven will be lovelier. And also great art from human artists -- perhaps a collaborative symphony from Bach and Beethoven? This morning I had a new wrinkle on the thought. God appreciates any kind of artistry. Maybe even assembly line workers. Might one of the exhibits in heaven's museum be several thousand inside passenger door panels put on by someone who took his job seriously, who did it as well as he could. Who ever noticed how well those panels were put on? I think God would.

God's work given to us

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." So God has planned things for us to do. Therefore it follows he has planned things for others to do. It isn't up to us to try to get as much done as we can by learning all the tricks of multi-tasking and self-promotion. So we should not be frantic to do more, but to be confident God will enable us to do what he wants us to do. A poem by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn reminds me of this truth. He wrote this when after years of suffering in the Gulag and nearly dying of cancer, he abruptly found himself one of the most famous young writers in the USSR when his first novel came out.

At the crest of earthly fame
I look back in wonderment
at the journey beyond hope--to this place,
from which I was able to send mankind
a reflection of your rays.
And however long the time
that I must yet reflect them
you will give it to me.
And whatever I fail to accomplish
you surely have allotted unto others.

I admire his faith -- "however long the time that I must yet reflect them, you will give it to me." Also his humility, "whatever I fail to accomplish, you surely have allotted to others." So we too should have faith that God will enable us to do what he has given us to do, and humility that what we are not able to do, God has assigned to others.

Wild and crazy promises

Psalm 91 sounds quite clear. "If you say 'the LORD is my refuge,' and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways."

 Plain and simple. Commit yourself to God and nothing will ever go wrong. Is that really what it says?

 Satan used these verses to tempt Jesus. " Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’"

 "Don't put the Lord your God to the test," Jesus replied, quoting another Scripture.

 Did Jesus think of Psalm 91 again when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane? There he was, having given himself to God, not putting God to the test but doing what he was supposed to do. Wasn't it time to claim the promise -- "no harm will come to you, the angels will watch over you." But he did not, he said "Not my will, but yours be done."

 Paul adds one more wrinkle to interpreting the promises. "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." Jesus brings the fulfillment of the promises. The promise that no harm will come to you if you give yourself to God? That is the promise that Jesus came, died and rose again, guaranteeing us eternal life, and ushering us into the Kingdom as God's adopted children. That is the optic for understanding the promises, the wild and crazy truth awaiting us.

Philosophy and Scripture

Philosophy strikes me as thinking like a detective in a mystery --or maybe more like a geologist. You see a complex, intricate structure. How did it come to be? You figure out how impersonal forces could have acted to produce it.

But Scripture assumes another kind of mystery. A great powerful and loving being that we cannot see, hear or feel (except in rare moments) follows an intricate plan. He has shown us the overall character of this plan, but He doesn't show us the details. And our task is to hold onto what He tells us about His nature and the goodness of the plan, when we cannot figure it out and are tempted to believe there is no plan, only chaos.