1+1= chaos?

I was sitting in church this morning listening to this young preacher kid talk about God and Creation and stuff and I started meandering down my own little bunny trail of thought...


1+1=2, 2+2=4, This is a given. We know this. It doesn't change (dear math geeks - just... let me have this one, ok?). It is absolute. We can always rely on the fact that 1+1=2. Always.

We can also rely on God to be absolute. Always. (If you need me explain that one, well, maybe you should spend some time in church yourself.) The omnipotent, omnipresent, all loving, caring, just, righteous, graceful, merciful, etc, etc, Creator God. Never changing; absolute. Always.

And also, the natural world around us is full of things that we come to rely on, to take for fact, to expect to always be constant and never changing: The sun rises and sets, gravity holds us in place, seeds grow and reproduce, water is wet, ants build up their ant hills just before a rain, leaves turn colour and fall off trees, etc, etc, etc. It just is. And we rely on it to always be constant and never changing.

So we live in this world where everything around us is constant and reliable and unchanging. Fact. Absolute.

And then....
There are people.

And for all intensive purposes, we, people, are chaos!!

Everything about us is always changing. And I don't mean that we grow up and become wiser and get jobs and stuff like that. I mean, daily, constantly, we have factors at play in our lives which change the way we view the world around us.

Our emotions alone are a huge factor. Today, grumpy; tomorrow, happy. Why? Just because. But also: our current state of spirituality, friendship circles, moods, living arrangements, amount of sleep, health, food eaten for lunch, the weather. So many things are at play which affect the way we live on a minute by minute basis. And this in turn affects the way we handle situations around us; how we interact with other people. Really, it's a wonder that any of us are friends with anyone else! With all those factors at play, how do you even begin to predict how someone else is going to react to something you say or do?

It makes me stop and think. People are not absolute. People are not unchanging. And yet we often treat each other the opposite of this.

Maybe I should start showing a little more grace towards people; a little more caring, compassion and understanding. After all, I don't know what's going on in your head, but if you're just trying to navigate the chaotic waters of life like I am, wouldn't it be better if we weren't all a bunch of jerks about it?