Easily Excitable

Growing up, back when I liked math (lol) we would do our homework at the kitchen table. 

This was back in the day- back when we lived on Berkley Road (I can remember because, again, at this point- I liked math).

When it came to tabletop homework, I’m pretty sure there was a rule that we had to put our papers on something when writing; after all, the dinner table was made of some type of soft wood.

I know you’ll be surprised, we didn’t abide by this. 

Pressing down on something so as not to imprint on the table was in the same wheelhouse as ‘always use a coaster.’ 

Which is to say we didn’t listen. 

So, as a result, there were little scrawl marks on the Berkley Road dinner table (and there were white cup rings all on the end tables, to boot). 

Along with our homework, Daddy sometimes left his there too. 

Naturally, his work wasn’t a worksheet: his was a yellow legal pad. It’s the Joe Meadows hallmark. 

The pages were filled with his writing, always done in blue Pilot pen (which we kids had a penchant for losing).

No matter the season or day, there were always multiple to-do lists in the pages of the legal pad. We laugh about it to this day because Daddy is still very particular about his to-do lists. 

There are the regular to-dos. 

Then, there are the single-starred, double-starred, and (the most important) the triple-starred. 

We still get tickled talking about those lists because, of all the things my Daddy is, routined is one of them. 

Read: he still does his lists this same way. 

The main reason why it’s funny now? 

I seem to have inherited the to-do trait from Daddy.

I’m a little older now, and his lists make a whole lot more sense now than they did back then. I love a to-do list. 

Last weekend, I made one with the goal to accomplish all tasks in one day, but I also knew I would have time this weekend to work on things. 

See, we’ve traveled a lot these past few weeks, and it’s set me a bit behind on things around the house/ farm. There is much to do.

I was ultra-productive last weekend and marked several things off my list. This week’s seen me add several check-offs, but I’m still hopeful I’ll wrap everything up this weekend. 

I used to be fun. I swear I was. 

I get my kicks from checking off those items.

That’s my dopamine hit of choice these days, I guess. 

 And here recently? Those to-dos have largely been around cleaning. 

Nothing shows off my Type A personality quite like the fact that I like my home to be clean. 

There are a couple of caveats to that:

I am not an organized person on vacation. 

That, for me, is more like a clothes explosion. I have more of a to-do list in the form of an itinerary there. 

And at school? 

There are many weeks where I think (but am not sure) that there is a desk under all my papers: artwork for 9th grade, narratives for 10th, and quizzes for both. 

My days at school can be chaotic, both because that is my nature AND that is the nature of working with teenagers. 

But my Friday goal at school is to have a cleared-off desk by 3:00. A lot of the time, that doesn’t happen. 

Alas. 

But one thing that keeps me sane is a clean house. 

I hate clutter, disorganization, and uncleanliness. That, mainly, is because home is the sane place: it’s the place where things should make sense. 

The one reason I can manage chaos at school- the multitude of voices I hear, requests for pencils, questions about clubs that I have no answers for, interpersonal insults, and the MANY voiced desires to go to the bathroom- is because home is not like this. 

I see God in a to-do list. I see God in organization. 

I think all of us have at least something (or many things) we like to keep clean, organized, and sensical: if we can do that, it does loads for our mental space. 

I think that desire for order is a thumbprint of God. 

I think our desire for that order is God-breathed and God-purposed. 

And we struggle to achieve that order because things in our world always devolve into disorganization and mess. 

One easy example of this is the fact that we all love a clean floor. But no matter how we try, that clean floor will be scuffed up and substantially dirtied in a matter of days or hours (depending on the traffic in your home).

So, what is even the point? I can often ask myself. And yet! I will still clean the floor. 

Our broken world constantly tracks towards disarray, but there is something is all of us that years for order. 

I think that’s also why a chaotic world stresses us out so much. 

The world has always been chaotic, for sure, but I will go to the grave believing that the reason we’re so stressed about it now is because we have a window into the world other generations never had. 

It’s a window into the mess we aren’t able to clean up. 

A look into the natural world, though, reveals an ordered Creator: 

The way the seeds in a sunflower are arranged. 

The human body

The different control centers of the brain

That birds can instinctually fly in perfect formation

The way the corral reef fits and works together like a puzzle

How each season changes and has a specific timeline for that change

The way a golden retriever’s hair knows exactly when to change coats (the shedding, oh my goodness)

The stages of a tomato plant’s growth

How different plants can only grow and give fruit in different seasons

Nature has no to-do list

And yet, the order is noticeably there. 

God is holy, sovereign, inescapable, omnipresent, all-knowing. 

We grow up learning about those qualities, which is a good thing: those are things that we might not necessarily arrive at on our own. 

But then, there are those things we learn about Him from living life- from considering him, and worshiping Him through seeing His hand in all things.

I love the things that God Himself teaches us through life: through the understanding that He is Good, that He is Creator of all things, and that He created humans in His own image. 

I’m thinking of those seemingly ‘small’ things about Him, too, that I’ll see in the little things in life. He’s detail-oriented, has a sense of humor, and loves beauty. 

And, He is ordered- methodical in all He does. There is no arbitrariness, no chaos in Him. 

And so, I see God in my to-do list: 

In my desire for organization, and my discipline to make it so. 

One thing about me, though? I don’t have all that energy God does: 

Last weekend, when I wrapped up my to-do list at 5:30, I crashed on the couch. 

Andddd I proceeded to doze in and out, then outright fall asleep, during the UGA game. 

God doesn’t need the sleep, but His daughter sure does. 

And really, maybe He was blessing me with that nap: the Dawgs weren’t much to see that night. I probably would have gone to bed angry, had I watched the whole thing. 

God’s always playing the long game. 

He’s in the little things, even a pen-smeared to-do list. 

Thank God for that.