E45: Bringing Order to Chaos with Gary Harpst

Chaos is not something to be avoided, but embraced as part of God’s design. In this episode, Eric Scovill sits down with entrepreneur and author Gary Harpst to make the case from Scripture that we are all created to overcome chaos and bring order. Gary also shares practical tools for diagnosing and addressing chaos in our lives, organizations, and relationships.

Here are some topics from today’s discussion:

• Chaos is God-ordained, not something to be feared
• Our purpose is to take chaos and bring order, creating unity
• Four areas to diagnose where chaos is originating: desire, intention, action, consequences

Episode Highlights:

[02:27] What is Chaos?

Gary defines chaos as the raw and unformed state of things that exists prior to the imposition of order. It is a state of disorder, uncertainty, decay, or abundance of resources and choices that can feel overwhelming without clear direction or focus. Rather than something to be feared or avoided, Gary sees chaos as a natural part of creation. According to Genesis, it was the first thing God brought into being. He argues that chaos is not inherently bad, but rather provides the materials that humans are designed by God to take and apply purpose and order to – through our work, leadership, and various endeavors. We fulfill our role of bringing order to chaos by taking the disorganized state of affairs and imposing organization, structure, and unity of purpose through our efforts to steward resources and relationships well.

[16:57] The Courage to Change

Any system or process that is established will naturally experience entropy and decay over time if not properly maintained. As a leader, you must have the courage and wisdom to recognize when something is no longer effective and in need of replacement, rather than clinging to it simply because it already exists. Letting go of outdated policies, initiatives, or ways of doing things, even if they were once successful, requires courage. But it is critical for progress and adapting to new realities. Effective leaders are willing to stop degrading processes and replace them with something better aligned with the current environment and objectives. This allows the organization to continuously improve rather than rest on past successes.

[24:31] Chaos and Purpose: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Where there is chaos or disorder, purpose provides the solution by imposing organization and direction. But purpose also relies on and arises from chaos as its raw material. Without some initial chaos or abundance of unformed resources, there would be nothing for purpose to shape and create value from. Purpose brings order to the chaos, but that order then becomes subject to entropy and decay over time if not maintained, eventually reverting back to a state of chaos once more. So purpose both solves and is fueled by chaos in an ongoing cycle. They cannot exist without each other. Where there is chaos, purpose provides the way forward, and purpose itself creates new systems that will eventually need reordering.

Resources Mentioned:

www.leadfirst.ai 

Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others