Definition: Meeting–what you go to to learn how to do what you already know how to do, but you can’t do because you’re too busy going to meetings. Yep! Much time is lost at meetings that accomplish nothing because they lack purpose and order.

As a Registered Parliamentarian, I have been accused of wasting time by following the “silly” requirements of Robert’s Rules. I tell them Henry Robert, an Army Officer, created Robert’s Rules of Order after chairing a fourteen-hour meeting at a church that descended into utter chaos.

Bringing order out of chaos is a Biblical idea. “In the beginning, when God created the universe,  the earth was formless and desolate” (Genesis 1:1-2a).  God ordered things just so for human beings to thrive.

I heard this on the TV show “Young Sheldon.”

Sheldon: Did you know that if gravity were slightly more powerful, the universe would collapse into a ball?
Mary: I did not.
Sheldon: Also, if gravity were slightly less powerful, the universe would fly apart and there would be no stars or planets.
Mary: Where you going with this, Sheldon?
Sheldon: It’s just that gravity is precisely as strong as it needs to be.

I don’t know if Sheldon is correct, but he underlines the need for order. However, order is valuable only if it serves a purpose. Order for the sake of order can be suffocating.

Ah, the struggle to find the right amount of order in life for us to carry out God’s purposes.

Read Genesis 1:1-5 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne