Police arriving in the middle of the night. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Another emergency room visit. A close call with cancer or a heart attack or a car crash. Broken down and stranded out of town. Life on planet Earth is inherently dramatic. Anger, greed, sloth, lust for power and a host of other sins wreak havoc in the lives of their committers and anyone who gets caught in the crossfire. Plain old entropy, the tendency for everything to degrade from order to disorder (imposed on the universe in Genesis chapter three), shoots random blasts of drama into our lives every day.
Drama is addictive. It gives an adrenaline rush. It draws attention. Pour out your tale of woe and get sympathy and outrage and an outpouring of help and good wishes. My experience tells me that when life’s drama level starts to drop we can, incredibly, be reluctant to see it go. We may even do or say something to whip it all up again, one way or another. A recent self-examination yielded humiliating results as I found this tendency hidden away in my own sorry self. My husband might say, “Well, duh.” But I had to figure it out for myself, and I’m convinced it’s a sinful desire that is displeasing to our extremely patient Savior.
The Bible has lots to say about what healthy living looks like.
- Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1 Thess.4:11
- If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Rom. 12:18
- For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Titus 2:11-12
- Read Proverbs 10:4,5, and 12. Proverbs 11:22, 12:1,11 and 15. Proverbs 13:20, 14:1,15 and 23. Oh, just read the whole book of Proverbs. Lots in there about healthy, drama-free living.
We often have no control over when drama comes crashing into our lives. But we need to discipline ourselves not to crave the attention and adrenaline it generates. For any of you who have never gotten a thrill from being the center of sympathetic attention, just ignore me. But for the rest, be honest with yourselves and vow to reform. Ask for help when you need it, certainly. But don’t focus on your troubles so fiercely.
The quiet, ordered life doesn’t usually attract too much attention from others. People will generally not constantly ask how you’re doing and if there’s anything they can do to help. Their energies will rightly be focused on where help is critically needed. We need to really be okay with not being fussed over.
It’s interesting that one definition of entropy is “a measure of the disorder that exists in a system.” That’s bad enough, but in physics, the definition is “a measure of the energy in a system that is unavailable to do work.” High drama and disorder in your life cause you to be unavailable to serve the One who gave everything to save you. So I encourage you to do everything in your power to let the drama go. Work hard to get your life in order, as detailed in the verses above. Ask Jesus for the help you will surely need to do this. Don’t fall back on blaming someone else for your troubles, even if they really are to blame. There is almost always something you can do to work toward peace and stability, even if others don’t cooperate.
Growing in maturity means understanding that it’s not about me. It’s about God and His glory and His purpose for the world. That glory and purpose is in no way served by me being a self-absorbed drama queen. I humbly ask my Savior to forgive this in me, and to help me focus on what He is doing in the world and right here in my town, and to show me where and how I might participate in that, according to His good pleasure. I hope you will do the same.
